Oh My Lucky Stars!

I'm sorry if you are tired of pictures of this quilt by now! But today is the day to link them up over at QuiltStory, so I wanted to post it one more time all by itself (instead of hidden in with other finishes).  I also dragged it all around the house looking for a good/better photo spot.  Hope these photos are a little more interesting than just having the quilt up on the design wall :)

 

This little quilt top is still up on my design wall, but that is working for me.  While staring off into space yesterday (and avoiding the last border to a small project- I seriously procrastinate adding borders, even tiny ones) I figured out how to quilt this.  Woohoo!  I had been planning an all over pattern, but then I was torn on thread color because I like it to match, but now I am thinking of mixing it up.  Maybe quilting loops in the navy part, following the seams in the patch blocks, diamonds in the star blocks, not totally sure about the square block yet.  No idea if this is how it will work out or not.  This is supposed to be a baby gift, so that might be too much quilting for it.  We'll see. 

I had so much fun with my first quilt-a-long!  When is the next one??

Here are the past posts on this quilt can be found here- http://flipflopsandquiltblocks.blogspot.com/search/label/lucky%20stars%20qal

Frenzy of Finishes

I didn't realize how much I had accomplished this week until I sat down to write this post.  Suddenly I am feeling very productive! 

My finishes, in no particular order:

#1. QuiltStory's Lucky Stars QAL Quilt Top

 

I was so excited to be sewing the last seam on this yesterday, I ironed the top, stuck it up on my design wall, stepped back ...and realized there were supposed to be borders.  So today I took it down and added the borders. 

 

Do borders take you forever to put on too?  I have realized that I do not like sewing long seams and I will procrastinate like crazy when it comes to doing them.  We are talking 2 full episodes of The West Wing for me to cut, iron, and sew on these four strips of fabric.  Sad I know.

 

 

#2. Lilly Pulitzer Pin Cushion

 

I enjoyed making pineapple pin cushion so much last week that I decided some fun pin cushion sewing was needed after finishing the above quilt top.  This little guy was whipped up in no time (seriously, less time that it took me to add those borders).  The Lilly Pulitzer fabrics are actually a belt/sash that I had.  I just sewed it up like a jellyroll race quilt, folded it in half, sewed up the sides and there we go.  It is filled it with the crushed walnut shells again, since I have quite a large bag of them now. 

#3. Cat Carrier ID Tags

 

And from the world of totally random things I think of to sew, I introduce you to luggage/ID tags for my cats' carriers!  Can you say #crazycatlady?  In all fairness there was a little bit of logic, I had to take my cat to the vet earlier in the week and he stayed for a few hours.  I left his carrier and they put a sticky label on it with his name and my contact information.  It seemed like a good idea to have that info on there, but obviously a much cuter solution was needed :)

 

 

A little bit of coordinating fabric (more thought that I care to admit was given to finding appropriate fabrics for this project), some stabilizer, a tiny piece of Velcro, a piece of paper with the address information and "laminated" with clear shipping tape, and this little ID tag was born.  And yes, I excitedly showed them off to my husband the second he got home.  He was very supportive and said "oooohhhh" and had a big smile on his face, and didn't tease me once about making them.  #heisakeeper





WIP Wednesday

 

Time to bite the bullet and get working on this today.  All the blocks are done, they just need to be sewn into a quilt top- but I had some trouble with those patch blocks and they might not be the exact right size, so I am kind of dreading putting all this together and hoping it goes well.  Lots of chocolate may be needed while working on this :) 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Jellyroll Troubles

D.O.N.E
That is the best way to describe these blocks.

How on Earth do I have a harder time with these, should-be-simple, patchwork blocks than I did with my star blocks??  Actually, I can answer that- #1. I stink at sewing long, straight seams (I really should have just chopped up the strips into squares vs. trying to do this the "easy" way) and #2.  pinked edges on jellyroll strips and I are not friends.  I never know if the pinked edge counts in the 2.5" measurement or not.  Do you cut off the little triangles?  Ignore them and sew 1/4" down from their lowest point?  Count them as part of the 2.5" square and match the top points and sew a 1/4" from there?  Does any of that make sense? 

Either way, I tried to ignore the little triangles and it did not work in my favor.  Well, it might have if I hadn't ignore them for one batch of patches and included them in the seam allowance for another- so when I tried to match seams between the two sets it did not work.  Yeah, that was fun.  Started these blocks last Wednesday as soon as the tutorial was posted and finished them today, 7 days later, since I (being a typical, type A) had to resew some/most seams. 

On the brightside, they finished now (and up to my own standards) and look good with the rest of the blocks!

 

We are getting so close to the end of this- I can't want see all the finished quilts!

Lucky Stars QAL

Reasons why I am loving my first ever Quilt-a-long:

#1. someone else has figured out all the math
#2. someone else has figured out all the cutting
#3. it's just a few blocks a week to make, so it isn't overwhelming
#4. the pattern is so cute!
#5. posting photos on Instagram and seeing others what others are making is so much fun
#6. chatting on Instagram with the QuiltStory girls and getting feedback on my blocks from the girls who designed the quilt is awesome! (I have read their blog for years and always get so excited when they chat with me- feel like I am talking to celebrities :)  #giddyquiltinggroupie
#7. the pattern is so cute!  (yes, that deserves to be mentioned again!)

And now, for the newest Lucky Stars blocks, the square-in-square

And all the blocks together so far

 

I'm so happy I used navy for the background and got out of my white rut.  The navy looks so sharp with these prints (and is much for practical for a baby quilt).  Many thanks to QuiltStory for showing me a Lucky Stars quilt with a navy background, its what pushed me to do the same!

Stars and Hexies

New projects have been started!

Project #1
Lucky Stars Quilt-a-long with Quilt Story

 

Here are my first six blocks for the Lucky Stars QAL.  I think the actual pattern calls for 9 stars, but I want this to be a baby quilt so I only made six (well, that and maybe I bought a jellyroll with only 18 strips vs. 30-something, so I needed to adjust for that).  My points turned out really well on these stars- turns out pressing and trimming really do help with sewing accuracy!  Who would have thunk it :)

 

Project #2.

Hexies!

 

 

I got it in my head a few weeks ago that I wanted to make hexies, they just seem like the perfect portable, stuck in an airplane/airport project.  Of course, I decided this less than 24 hours before having to get on said airplane so I didn't have a chance to get everything I needed to be able to take this project with me.  Instead hexies turned into my Wimbledon project!  I get obsessed with the tournament every year (seriously, at work the last three years I did a split screen on my computer and had it on all.day.long... yeah, not much real work got accomplished during those weeks).  I'm so happy to be home now and able to really watch and enjoy it!  I knew I couldn't just sit on the couch all day without getting a little antsy though, so on Middle Sunday (aka no tennis matches being played) I ran out to JoAnns and picked up some hexie templates and spent Manic Monday (aka all 16 of the players remaining play!) making hexies and cheering for my favorite players. 

 





Now that I have hexie supplies though, I clearly need something cute to put them in.  Started working on a zip pouch for them last night!