More Japanese minis

I finally finished my "twin" to my March Japanese mini-quilt. I think I got a little burned out on the project after I spent so long hand-quilting the first one when I hadn't even finished piecing the second top. Also, my mom's birthday is in April and I thought it would be a good idea to make her a mini-quilt and get her started on a collection of Karissa-made minis (much like the collection I've forced on my gramma), so I had decided to make three of these. Ugh. 

In the end, I decided to just grit my teeth and knock the last two out. I opted for machine-quilting instead of hand-quilting and that was pretty huge. The stipple in the light areas is pretty scribbly, but I'm not a good stippler and my tension was okay, so I don't really mind. 

I'm glad to finally have these done. I also finished my April "anything goes" minis over the weekend and popped the swap one in the mail on Tuesday. Below is a sneak peek that I posted to the group. It should be received soon, so I'll be able to show the whole thing. 

Now I'm working on some Mother's Day minis for some special ladies and getting ready for the May STUD mini challenge. The theme is "twisted traditional." I have a lot of ideas floating around and I want to sit with this for a little bit before I decide what to do. I will spend my weekend appliquéing like mad, and also getting ready for a prom party we're going to tomorrow. Corsage and everything! I'm pretty excited about that.