for my friend Heather and her soon-to-be-born baby!  For Heather's birthday this week, I surprised her with this little Puzzle Ball from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.



Although the ball looks rather big in the book, it's only designed to finish at 5" diameter.  



I actually used my Go! Baby cutter to cut all the circles for this project, a major time-savor that resulted in the ball finishing the slightest bit smaller than 5" diameter.  Fabrics are Botanics in Teal Metallic Perennial and Tangerine Scratch, which you can find in stock at Fat Quarter Shop.



And good thing too (on time time-saving) since I was running late prepping these quarter-circles to take-along on last weekend's camping trip!  At this stage they've been machine-pieced and are ready to be stuffed and closed by hand. 



Such a little project and so portable - definitely a win for road trips.  The only tricky part was connecting the points with embroidery floss.  I had to do a lot of knot-popping, which sometimes turns into thread-breaking and in Brandon's favorite crafty dig, "Take it apart and start over!" 



Clearly I need to make one for Eleni!  Or... for me?  Seriously, these little puzzle balls are exactly that.  They delight grown-up brains too!  I'm wondering if I can do something cool with the color wheel...