Ketchup weekend, Design Wall Monday and other fun

This past weekend was a Ketchup weekend organized by Pat Sloan. I do not have any block of the months started that I needed to get caught up with, but I did have something I wanted to make. So I got to work on a quilted sweatshirt jacket. I made some good progress, but still have a ways to go.

Here is what I have so far.

I'm not sure I like it, but I will wait until I'm finished to form my final opinion.

Judy L. has been doing a feature called Design Wall Monday, where she shows what is on her wall and shares links to other quilter's blogs and design walls. I think it is fun to see what other quilters are working on, so I decided to share the state of my design wall today.

Here's a peek at what I'm playing with this week.

These are nine-patch blocks from some swaps I did a couple years ago. I made one quilt with my swap blocks last year. And I had all but about about a dozen of the black/white setting blocks needed for this one already made. So I whipped those up and am now ready to make up the quilt top. I will probably shuffle the nine-patches around a bit, until I like the balance before I start stitching them together.

And speaking of playing with swap blocks, this is what came off my wall before I put up the nine-patches. I swapped these blocks last year with some internet friends. The swap did not result in a lot of blocks, and I was going to make more so I could get a decent sized quilt. But, I am really trying to finish things, so I put my blocks up on the wall just to see what I could do with them. The result is a small quilt top, probably a good baby quilt size. It works for me, so I'm going with it.

The block pattern for this one came from Bonnie over at Quiltville. I chose this setting for the blocks, but there are so many great ways to play with them for different looks.