Long Over Due Update

Hi Everyone! I have been (trying to) working on my daughter's "College" quilt. As you see I have a helper, named Emma, today and haven't gotten very far. My daughter wanted me to do some sort of butterfly motif quilting. I don't know if you can see it in this photo yet or not. When I finish quilting it I'll show you.
I've also been working on the "Civil War" blocks being put out once a week by Barbara Brackman. I have caught up on all of them except the last one which is about half done. I think I might have mentioned before, that I am hand piecing these blocks just as our ancestors would have done. I'm not using Civil War specific fabrics, but I am trying to use only reproduction fabrics for these blocks. :0)
Next up are a couple of quilts made by some of the women in my quilt "Bee" . We had a meeting this past Wednesday. The one above is done all in batiks. The one below was a mystery quilt one of our members participated in while she was in California visiting family and friends. ( It looks like yummy chocolates and blueberries to me! ;0)

You might have heard that our state of North Carolina has been bombarded with unusually strong and mighty tornados. The one came within about 5 miles of us. We had extremely heavy rain, and very strong winds as well as dime and nickel sized hail, but were untouched by the storms. I have been finding bits of house insulation in our yard from the surrounding homes that had been damaged. Every time I pick the stuff up I am saddened by the devastation it has caused for so many in our area. You may have heard about "Serendipity Drive"on the News as being hit pretty hard. My daughter has a teacher whose home was on that street. Her house was demolished. She has a son and a daughter between the ages of 8 and 10 years, I believe. My daughter wanted very badly to do something for her.
We ransacked my closet of quilts and came up with this one. It was something I had designed and made quite a while ago, but it seemed the most appropriate to give to this particular family. It made my daughter happy to be able to do "something " for her.
This is a set of basket bins that I store my scrappier fabrics in. My Kitty has claimed it as hers. If she isn't helping me quilt she's taking a nap in one of the baskets. Her nest! I think maybe Emma is trying to tell me something! "You have enough purple and pink scraps now to make a special quilt just for me!" Or maybe she is just a happy cat in a basket full of scraps!! LOL!! :0)