Box of Roses & Happy Hour Quilts

So I've had a couple of outings after work this week on top of not feeling that well leaving me little time to quilt this week.  I did manage to get almost all of the "Box of Roses" quilt.  I think I've finally decided to name the quilt I've been referring to as the mystery quilt "Box of Roses."  I quilted all of the inside and the inner border.  I just have to finish the outer border, trim, and bind.  

I'm going to be glad to be done with this quilt.  The machine quilting has been a pain in the you know what.  I've had so many issues with my tension.  I even got the screwdriver and cleaned out the machine to see if it was dirty or something inside was a little off.  I tried adjusting just about everything.  I think I've finally got it on the right settings.  

After a while of quilting this quilt tonight I really needed a brake from it.  Ever have one of those quilts where you're just ready to move on?  Of course you have, that's why we all have those famous UFOs.  

I decided to work on a tester quilt.  I'm going to be teaching my mom to quilt this year, so I thought I'd test out an easy pattern to see if it would be a good first quilt.  Ok, so I knew it would be, I just wanted to make the quilt.  There, I said it.  I've seen quite a few people making these quilts on a bunch of different blogs and I got the book for Christmas from my aunt, so why not.  

What is this quilt you're asking?  Why it's the Happy Hour Snapshots quilt from Atknson Designs.  I don't have a picture of all the fabric, but here's one pic I took of my strip piecing.  The quilt is being made with browns, reds, greens, and tans made out of the "Shaken Not Stirred" Sweet Treat from the pincushon boutique with a few fat quarters added in.

I'll have a tutorial for you soon on how I use paper plates to help me organize and keep track of different cuts of fabric while quilting.  It's a technique that I learned during my first quilting class several years ago.  People always think it's cleaver when they see how it's used to keep organized, so I thought I'd share.