Another Finish

This one has been a top for a long time because it was a store sample for several months.

Front

Back

The kits it was selling are all gone, so I brought it home and finished it. It has been a top since May 2012! Click here to read the post showing it as a top. And click here to see this same pattern with different fabrics.

The quilt finishes at 42" by 52", a perfect size for my oncology charity project. It even already has a finished bag to go with it.

Patriotic Star Value

I finished my Star Value Quilt of Valor.

This one measures 60" by 72" it is simply quilted with an all over meander. I altered the original pattern only in the method of construction. For this one I pieced the red stars, the blue stars and the diamonds separately. Then I arranged them on my design wall before sewing everything together. This allowed me to not have any partial stars and diamonds along the edges.

As a refresher, here is the first quilt I made using this pattern.

You can read more about the making of this first one in these two posts: post 1 and post 2. The original pattern can be found at Happy Quilting: Star Value Pattern.

Twelve!

Yesterday my little boy turned 12. It has been several years since we have been able to have a birthday party on his birthday, so it was a special day. We went to the Sand Dunes Pool for his party. I didn't take any photos around the pool yesterday, but you can see some I took previously if you click here.

Like many boys his age, he loves video games, especially Minecraft. We purchased a cookie cake from our new Nestle Toll House Cafe.

I took in a photo of a creeper I got off the internet for them to use as inspiration for decorating the cake. The birthday boy was pleased. And the cookie cake was pretty tasty!

I did get some pictures of my birthday boy yesterday evening. The light was just right for a mini photo shoot on the front porch.

He, of course, wanted to do a bunch of silly poses too. I took those photos in exchange for his cooperation in being able to get these two good shots.

Back to a quilting post tomorrow. I will have a finish to share!!

Almost Finishes

Last weekend I got two quilts quilted. I've been super busy with work this week but I have been able to get labels made for both and the binding attached to the front on both.

Above you can see that I have the label completely attached on one and about 2 feet of the binding sewn to the back. Hopefully I will be able to show you two finishes soon, but not today.

Catching Up

Last week I got caught up with the Globetrotting BOM hosted by Pat Sloan.

These are the blocks for January through May.

I will be donating this quilt to Quilts of Valor, which is why I'm using a patriotic color scheme. I'm also using mostly donated fabric too.

If you like mystery quilts and/or quilt alongs you should check this one out. Pat's directions each month are very clear and easy to follow. She also includes technique tips as well as photos of the blocks in two color ways. It's a really nice BOM and it's free!

Guild Class

Last Saturday I took a full day class with my guild from Annette Kennedy. Click here to go to her website. It was a fun class and this is what I made.

I wish I had taken a picture of this before I started painting. For three of the five branch pieces I used the back of the fabric. So all of the marks you see on those pieces are painted on. Some of my leaves are good, some aren't that great. I'm hoping the quilting will help with some of the leaves I don't really like.

I have enough of the dark green to do another small border, then I'll quilt it. The piece is small, only 9" by 20" at this point.

It was a fun class and if you get a chance to take a class from Annette and you are interested in painting on your quilts, take the class. She also teaches a class through Craftsy called Painted Pictorial Quilts. She said that she covers a lot of what we learned plus some more stuff in the Craftsy class.

Blocks from Mom

My mom sent me two sets of blocks recently. I quickly assembled one set.

The border is from my stash. It's not my favorite, but it was the best option from my stash. When it is finished it will be donated to my local hospital for an oncology patient.

The second set has 17 blocks. I can't decide whether to put one block into my orphan block pile and make a square quilt (which aren't my favorite). Or sew up 3 more blocks so that I have 20.