Say It With Flowers

Welcome to my stop on the hop!  I was inspired to finish up a quilt top from the Starburst Quilt Along earlier this year.  The top was completed in February, so it didn’t sit around for too, too long before quilting…

This is the second time I’ve tried other free motion quilting designs besides stippling.  I used wonky diamonds along the outer border & stippling in the negative white space.  Inside each star I quilted a swirl and then rays emanating out toward the points of the stars. 

I used Angela Walter’s Free Motion Quilting book for design inspiration.

And where are the flowers?  On the back!

Normally I like to take photos before washing the quilt, but this time I washed and dried it because I am donating this quilt.  I wanted to make sure all the seams went through the washer and dryer with no problems. 

I also used a flower print for binding—House and Home by Bernatex.  I love these happy little flowers!

This quilt is going to a group who provides quilts for breast cancer patients.  I didn’t have any specific person in mind when I started the quilt along, so hopefully it will provide comfort to someone who needs it.

Make sure you check out all the other stops on the hop today!

May 31^st

Squawk That

How Art You?

A Little Bit of Lorene

Handmade By Mama

Blooming Where I Am Planted

Jane’s Quilting

Just Quilt It

busybeequilts

Lisa In Port Hope

Les Quilts

Quilts My way

Thanks so much, Carol & Madame Samm, for organizing this hop and cheering everyone on!

Finished Starburst Quilt Top?

Have you seen the gallery of quilt tops from the Starburst QAL?  I thought I finished my top over the weekend, but after seeing all the beautiful quilts on Flickr, I think I might be adding a border to it before it’s ready to quilt.  What do you think?  Should I add a border?

My husband and I went to brunch on Sunday for a late Valentine’s “date” and we took the quilt top along to try to take photos somewhere other than in the front yard.  It was a beautiful, but very cold and windy, day.  We went to our favorite restaurant where we used to eat every weekend while we were dating and in grad school.  We would split a bottle of wine between the two of us, but we can’t handle that anymore!

After making all the blocks for this quilt top, I changed my mind about one of them and remade the block.  I am so happy that I went with my gut.  The new block is much improved.  It has some of my favorite fabrics—Pezzy print, Heather Bailey, and Denyse Schmidt. 

When we got home, Bea and I did a few photos in the front yard.  In December when the Pantone 2013 color was announced I started obsessing about the color emerald.  I saw this coat at Lands End in December and had to have it to include it in one of my emerald project photos!   A silly reason to buy a coat maybe, but I wear it plenty since it’s been so cold this winter.

Linking up to Plum and June, Freemotion by the River, Fabric Tuesday, and WIP Wednesday.

Pink Lemonade

  

Melissa of Happy Quilting is hosting a Starburst Quilt Along that ends in a few short weeks. That this quilt has been challenging for me would be an understatement.  Melissa’s tutorials and directions have been clear and well written.  I think this is just my first quilt that I’ve had to follow the directions exactly and that’s where I have a little trouble…and of course picking the appropriate fabrics is always hard.

I ended up having to go with scrappy star centers because I made a few mistakes sewing pieces together.  I was short enough fabric to fix the problem, so I just decided to go scrappy.  It worked out to my advantage though because I had cut 3 green stars and 1 pink, so I was able to balance them out  and make it 2 and 2.

Then the adventure began when I put the blocks together and I realized the burst points were unbalanced, too. So I scrapped one of the blocks and remade it.  The top is complete and once the weather cooperates, I’ll take some photos.

If you have a moment, you should check out the Starburst gallery on Flickr.  There are some real beauties!

Starburst Quilt Along Week 1

I didn’t get a chance to do any sewing the past week because we went on a family vacation to Disney World.  I’m not complaining!  Tonight is the first night since we got back that I got a chance to sit down in my sewing room.  I did want to share this photo I made my husband take of the set on the ride “It’s a Small World.”  I thought the resemblance to Hello Pilgrim by Lizzie House was uncanny!

So, have you ever heard of the term “goat rope?”   That’s what cutting my fabric for the Starburst QAL was like.  I started with the wrong size fabric, cut some pieces, then realized I didn’t have enough and had to start over picking my fabrics.  It was a downer because I actually did the black-and-white photo value trick when I picked my first set of fabric.

I was pretty happy that I had a couple different values included in my selection.  I tried to make the top row dark, the middle row medium, and the bottom row light.

A few fabrics even surprised me!  But when I had to start over and pick new fabric, I just cut without taking the time to do the black-and-white comparison.  So here are my final pieces.

And now let’s see how I did picking different values.

It looks like there’s too much dark in the second starburst, so I’ll be switching it up a little before starting to sew it together.  But overall I’m happy how it turned out.  Now I’m pretty much caught up to Week 2. 

Have a great night!