"Chatter in the Cherry Blooms" - block #12

Finally I took an afternoon to complete the last block of the At Home in the Woods project. It had a ton of little leaves and flowers involved. I do love the elements that drop into the other blocks or into the border.

Then I got to prepare for quilting. Some of the areas were impossible to get safety pins through - they were too thick.
Neat animal print backing:
And finally, the beginning of some quilting. Which was surprisingly more difficult than I thought. Some of it is just the frustration of not getting the perfect stitching I want.

Yesterday I decided to start another quilt so I would have some piecing to go to when I needed a break from the quilting on this one. It will keep me from rushing it.

I realized quickly that rather than start with the fine tracing on things like animals I should work more on the bigger, background elements. I have had some small pieces (like a ladybug and berry) fall off altogether as the quilt is being folded and manipulated. It is hard to not want to randomly move around and tack down all the pieces that are starting to release first. But I would rather just collect them and be a little more methodical in my quilting. Not to mention it is a pain to be switching all the colors.
Rusty is working really hard at his training, and it is coming along. He actually doesn't have a choice which is totally evident in this photo which shows how he feels about sit-stays:
A huge amount of work is going into his public manners right now. I think actually that might be the face I make when I have reached my saturation during training (the handler really is always the dumb one).

Check out Mr. "Of course I know how to settle in the house":

This is brand new behavior. Three nights in a row now so I am ecstatic. He still tries to get into trouble first but at least now he finally settles. No sleeping yet; but I bet he is close.