Michael Miller Challenge Quilt Finish

It took me a while to get the inspiration I was looking for on my Michael Miller Challenge quilt. I had several ideas but none that I was really in love with. Then one day I was poking around on Pinterest for quilt and kept seeing stars that I loved - an idea was born. I wanted to do a quilt with several of my favorite stars from around the internet with lots of negative space. It finished up 60" by 76". This quilt is on my Q3FAL list (posted here).

Here's what I ended up with. I'm pretty in love with it. I picked out my stars and then was amazed when I looked in my new book "Vintage Quilt Revival" and there was a pattern with a bunch of negative space that used the same size and number of blocks that I wanted! This is the Sugar Snow quilt layout substituted with stars of my own choosing. I picked (largest first) Swoon, Star Surround, Green Mountain Star, Arizona Star, and the small six are from the Stars QAL.

This little star was one from the Stars QAL. She offered several different size options but I wanted 8" blocks (not a choice). I was surprised at how easy it was for me to do the math to shrink these down. They were pretty fun blocks to make.

I'm a big fan of minimal quilting - especially in straight lines. I was a little tempted to do something a bit more intense for this quilt because it was for a challenge but I liked staying true to myself better. I bound it in the same "dirt" (their name not mine) fabric that I used for the background and then the backing is a MM solid green. Can I just stop here and mention how much I love the feel of these MM fabrics? They are so soft! It was the first thing I noticed when I got my fabric.

My usual quilt holder was at work and I seriously couldn't wait to take pictures and share this one. So, I enlisted my oldest kids (age 8 and 7) to hold this up. They're obviously too short so I grabbed a pair of chairs and they did really well. I heard a lot of moans as I took the pictures from the behind the quilt and it cracked me up. I bought them off with a piece of candy and all was forgiven.

Here's a closeup of my favorite block - the swoon. I've had plans to make a swoon quilt ever since I saw the original several years ago but haven't gotten around to it yet. This was my first attempt at it and I'm pretty much in love. It wasn't any harder than I imagined and it looks so cool!

Well, there you have it. My kids all think I'm totally going to win first place but I'd really be surprised by that. I love this quilt and it was fun to try new stars and negative space - something I rarely, if ever, use. It was a fun challenge and either way I got a great quilt out of it! I'm linking this up over at Fabric Tuesday, Finish It Up Friday, and TGIFF

Star Surround Top

With a crazy burst of time and energy on my hubby's last day off I finished my Star Surround quilt top. This was part of a quilt-a-long by Melissa from Happy Quilting.

This was a far as I was hoping to get today. I finished all nine blocks this morning. The baby, about 1.5 months old, was being so good that I kept going.

I finished the whole top today! You can see the pieces I had in this post written this morning. I love how it turned out! My dead, dying grass looks great with the colors on this quilt too. ;)

This is just a cool angle of it. The fabric, which I love, is from Basic Gray's PB&J for Moda.

The secondary pattern it makes is pretty sweet too. I just love everything about this one!

Cheers to Melissa at Happy Quilting for writing up another fabulous quilt-a-long! I am waffling on what to do quilting wise so this may sit for a few weeks while I figure it out. I'm thinking straight-ish lines or an allover pattern.

I'm linking up with Finish it Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

WiP Wednesday: Pieces No More

I've made more progress on my Star Surround quilt. It's a good thing too because the grand prize linkup closes on Sunday! I have the centers and the surrounds all pieced together and the quilt is ready for assembly. I have eighty more seams (albeit some are quite long) until this is a queen-size  quilt. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

These are the centers of the blocks. I love these fancy stars and how they came out! All that trimming was so worth it now seeing the points all come together so well.

These are the surrounds. The corners at the top alternate and the pieces that look like the letter M go on the sides. I am loving how it is coming together and I'm so excited to get this one finished up.

I hope to assemble this over the next day or two since it has to be done by Sunday. I have so many fabulous things coming up! I can't wait to share them with you but I have to finish up this one first. Here's to another productive week!

UPDATE: My productive week is already off to a great start. I finished my Star Surround top. Go here to check it out.

WiP Wednesday: Just Keep Trimming!

I carved out some time for quilting this week. I am at that stage where there is a lot of work but not much to show for it -- trimming. I am now ready to put this bad boy together this week. I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

My sweet hubby got me this smaller ruler and it has made all the difference in my trimming world! I used to have to use my 12.5" square and it was a pain! I also put them out on my cutting mat 24 at a time and it seemed to make it go faster. I would do two sides and then flip them all and do the other two. I had 144 of these to trim.

Here are my HST all trimmed up along with the fancy pile of trimmings. I love how, dare I say, perfect they come out after trimming. It is a lot of work but it really makes a difference.

I also cut all the dog ears off my flying geese. There were 108 of these so it took a bit of time but not too bad.

Now all of my pieces are ready for assembly! This will become the Star Surround quilt from Happy Quilting. LOVE!

So to build the block you start with the centers. I love this, especially how the fabrics play off each other.

I laid out all my pieces so you can see the block. Isn't it fabulous?! I can't wait to put this one together. The fabric is PB&J by Basic Grey for Moda.

This week I hope to put this together, well, at least the centers. My hubby has vacation time so I'll probably have more time for sewing! Thanks for stopping by!

WiP Wednesday: Progress and Planning

After a while of only dreaming of sewing and working on stuff I finally feel like I'm getting my groove back. I worked on my quilt this week and got the fabric for a two more! I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

I'm working on the Star Surround Quilt-a-long with Melissa over at Happy Quilting. I seriously love her designs and am loving this quilt-a-long. I also recently won four of her patterns in a giveaway she had on her blog and I can't wait to try them out!! I finished making all the HST and flying geese for this quilt and now I just have to trim them and put the whole thing together. I was behind on each of the assignments but the finish linkup isn't due until September 15th so I think I can make it!

Check out these lovelies that I got in the mail today!! I've never bought a fat quarter bundle of Moda before because I could never afford or justify it but today was the day! This is Simply Color by V. and CO. for Moda and I'll be using it to make a double wedding ring. I was inspired by this Pinterest pin. I am so exciting and just can wait to get working on this one!

I won these DWR templates in a giveaway and they will make the quilt so much easier! I made one without the templates nearly three years ago and it's taken me this long to feel up to it again. My hubby and I will celebrate ten years of wedded bliss in April and I hope to have it finished by then. Well, I actually hope to have it finished by Dec. 1st so I can enter it into the NYC MOD quilters Double Wedding Ring quilt challenge!

Also this week I got these three charm packs. My sister is having a baby girl at the end of the year and I thought these High Street by Lily Ashbury for Moda would be perfect for her.

This is the pattern I'll be using for the High Street fabric. It is one of Melissa at Happy Quilting's quilt-a-longs. It's actually the original (you have to scroll to the bottom) and I'm excited to give it a try. Like I said I really love her stuff!

Now I'm off to press some HST while the baby is still napping. Hurray for progress!

WiP Wednesday: Small Projects

I am focusing on a few small projects right now, well, and a quilt. since my little girl is two weeks old today and I have four other ones to care for it seemed like a good idea to stick with small achievable goals. I find myself sleeping more than crafting lately but I enjoy what little time I have to spend. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

 First I'll start with the finishes. I can't believe I even have any!

I made this triple zip pouch for my mom. This is my third attempt and I love it just as much as I did the other two. It was even more simple this time and I didn't even have to look at the directions for most of it.

Here's the front/zipped up view of it. I love her fabric choice for this, it's so fun!

 Also, remember this dress from this post...

I crocheted it and it was so fast and fun!

I got to put the baby in it for her first day of church. She looked fabulous and I adore her little bird legs sticking out the bottom.

The teach my mom to crochet mission went well again this week. We worked on self-folding crochet hot pads. I wrote a picture heavy tutorial here.

My quilt is going slowly but surely...

I got all the fabric cut out on Friday. I made a few HST in the top right corner but I haven't pressed or trimmed them yet. I have been spending most of my sewing time drawing the diagonal line on all the white fabric. There are 216 of them so it takes quite a chuck of time. I hope it will go fast after this step.

This week I hope to get at least some sewing done on my quilt. I also hope to make the tote that I cut out the fabric for on Friday. If I'm not feeling up to that I may just crochet some more hot pads or sew on my hexies, We'll see. Thanks for stopping by!

Cutting Like Crazy

I have a few of projects that I bought fabric for over the past week or two. As of this morning I had started to cut out the quilt but that is all. Well, now I have them all cut as well as some projects for my mother all in one day! I feel like a crazy cutting machine!

Here's the fabric for the Star Surround Quilt-a-long hosted by Melissa over at Happy Quilting. It was supposed to be done last Monday to keep up but hey, I had a baby on the 24th so I think I have a good excuse. ;)

Here's all the things I cut out today. I figured it out and I cut 7 3/4 yards of fabric today. There is the quit in the middle. Then the triple zip on the bottom right. Then the other three are all this cool basket organizer that sits on your sewing table. I will be making the quilt and the two on the right. The ones on the left I cut out for my mom.

I seriously feel like super woman getting this all done while caring for a newborn and the four other kids. Not to mention the fact that we also did school clothes shopping today! I may need to take it easy tomorrow to recover a bit.

WiP Wednesday: Getting Up to Date

I have had a very eventful past few weeks which accounts for my absence on the blog. First and foremost I had the baby!!! Ruby Anne was born on July 24th. I share pictures further down. My mom is also here visiting and in between all that excitement I've actually done a few projects that I haven't had the chance to blog about. This below represents the past three or so weeks of work. I'm linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced because heaven knows I have a bunch of works in progress.

First, the baby!

This is Ruby Anne and me the day of her birth. She was born July 24th and was 7# 6.5oz and 19 1/2" long.

Here's my now giant family. I didn't think five kids was that many until you see them all together. We love it!

This is my favorite picture of the two of us so far. I couldn't resist sharing it here.

Here's Ruby with her quilt made from the fabric line Ruby by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. For more on this quilt go here.

 I actually managed a few finishes in the last few weeks as well. Here they are...

I made these 32 hats for the NICU babies and made cute little tags for them. On the tags I wrote about why I made them and how they could contact me if they felt the need. They were pretty cute. I dropped them off when I went into the hospital to have the baby. I didn't have the time to add the little embellishments like the ones found in the pattern but I think they are still cute.

It occurred to me that I didn't make one for my baby. Also that I didn't know if the pattern for the newborns would actually fit a newborn. It seems like the easiest thing to do would be to whip one up for the baby and see how it fit. It was a perfect fit! I ran out of yarn so I change color differently than the pattern but it's the same size overall.  For the hat pattern go here.

For her birthday, which she will be celebrating while she's here, my mom wanted me to buy some yarn and teach her how to crochet.

Here we are just starting out. It was pretty easy going since she knew how to crochet at some point it had just been so long she forgot how. Working with that base made it quite easy to whip something up.

We made these cool wrap and button scarves. You can find the pattern here.

Here's my mom with hers. We finished the same night we started and she had a nice sense of victory. Looks pretty cute too!

Here are the scarves together without our cute faces to distract you. I love how my mom did so well that if you didn't know hers was green you couldn't tell.

I also updated with a ton of pictures my self-folding hot pad tutorial. I bought six little balls of cotton yarn to make some for myself and teach my mom how to make them too. We have one done so far. We'll see how it goes this week.

Finally here's what I'm trying to work on now in between caring for myself, the newborn, my family and house. It's slow going.

I've made quite a bit of progress on my little 1.5" hexies. They look so good coming together! This is a long-haul sort of project.

I also must be a glutton for punishment because I joined up with a quilt along. The fabulous Melissa from Happy Quilting has done it again, made a pattern I couldn't refuse. The Star Surround quilt-a-long started this month and should be finished in September.

I took my mom to my favorite local quilt shop in order to buy some fat quarters to make her a triple zip pouch. That's the fabric on the bottom right. She got so excited while she was there and was loving so much of the stuff it was cute. We also got this cool little tote pattern for organizing stuff. She planning on making two (one of each size) and I will make one with the fabric on the top right. It should be fun!

 I am trying to keep my goals small and realistic. I hope to cut out the rest of the fabric for the quilt along. I only have the white left. Maybe do a few HST for that too. I also want to make more hot pads and cut out the fabric for my little tote. Maybe that's over-reaching, we'll see. Thanks for stopping by!