Design Wall Monday: the first of 2013

I have two quilts in progress (on my wall, there are many more elsewhere). The first is my paper piecing quilt from the support group I go to with Linda Hibert. I love learning these patterns from her. I have a lot of patterns to finish before I can put this together.

The second is my women of courage. It came to my attention during last months block that this whole quilt is put together with 9 inch squares. This kind of annoyed me. Doing it the way the pattern is written adds a ton of unnecessary seams. Lots of added bulk. I stepped back and looked at the quilt and decided I was not going to do it that way. This was my first time rewriting a pattern and to my surprise I did a good job of it. I am now much further ahead of everyone else in the class and I have been told not to share it. I can understand that, because it makes it more difficult for the shop owners. So this is the center of my women of courage. I would be able to finish the whole quilt now, but we don't have the last bit of material.