Ragged Squares Quilt Progress

I have been a busy girl working on my quilt... the squares came together quite quickly as it is just sewing 3 different sized squares on top of each other, no piecing or anything tricky... then I spent a good hour trying to get the arrangement of the squares right... in the end this is what I ended up with...

It is quite small, so it didn't take long to sew the top together... now that it is together I can see a couple of squares that shouldn't be next to each other, but oh well! Still loving the colour combination...

Then I pinned my top to some batting and some blue flannel backing so that it will be nice and soft... now all that is left to do is quilt it all... As of yesterday I have quilted 4 of my 30 squares... this could take a while...

Also, after my last post I would just like to reassure you that I didn't get caught up in the bushfire frenzy that has ripped through Victoria... well, not entirely... My house is still standing and my family are all safe and well, which I am thankful for... We did have a fire at the base of the hills I live in, but thankfully they got it under control quite quickly because they didn't want a repeat of the Ash Wednesday fires going through the Dandenong Ranges... Our street got told we were under threat and most people evacuated... I was already out, but had a eerie view of the fires from where I was... My heart goes out to all the people out there who have been affected by these fires...

My second skirt & some dress ideas...

Well, I finally got my second skirt finished just in time for another day of 43 degree heat tomorrow... ouch! They keep mentioning on the news how the weather tomorrow is going to be the worst bushfire weather in history in Victoria, which is scaring me a little (read: a lot) as we have just moved to an area that is prone to bushfires... let's just say that I will be packing a couple of bags and keeping them by the door tomorrow, along with the cat carrier and my car keys!

I made this skirt using the same pattern as the green floral one that I made a couple of weeks ago. This time I made the butterfly side from one continuous piece instead of alternating patterns, just using the floral for the flap. I wanted to do the same thing on the other side, only using the butterflies for the flap and the floral for the big piece, but I didn't have enough of the floral to do that. Instead I used some plain purple poplin I had in my stash for a bit of contrast. I also used the purple for the waistband because it was the only one out of the materials that I had enough of, and I made the ties much longer this time. I screwed up the waistband quite badly this time (didn't have the same problem last time which is a bit weird), but you can't tell when it is on so I didn't bother to re-do it.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this pattern, the way it sits, the pretty bows... the fact that there is a lot of overlap, thus alleviating the fear of flashing yourself in public at the slightest gust of wind! I will be making more of these in the future for sure.

I think the next piece of clothing I want to tackle is a dress. A friend introduced me to the TV show Pushing Daisies sometime last year and ever since I started watching it I have been in love with Chucks fashion sense which is mostly 40s-60s inspired. I really want to make myself some old style dresses, but there is a big step from a wrap around skirt to a dress that actually needs to be fitted properly! Anyone have any suggestions for an easy old style dress pattern?

But next, I need to start sewing together squares for my ragged squares quilt!