Starflowers

Earlier this year I saw a lovely Starflower quilt on a quilt blog. I have always loved this pattern, but have never made a quilt using it.  I shared it with a group of online quilt friends and we all commented how lovely it was and started sharing pictures of other Starflower quilts. And then... we decided a swap was in order. 4 of us participated.. small group, but still fun!  We made 5 blocks for each person participating.. the thought being you would receive a total of 15 blocks and then could make how ever many more you wanted to complete your top. Because we were small, we were able to choose individually what we wanted.  One friend wanted all primary colors and she wanted each quarter of the block (so 2 points) to be the same color family.  And she wanted white backgrounds.  The other 2 ladies wanted each point a different color using fabrics that had an old timey look.... small prints.. darker shades.. not 1930s repros.  One wanted cream and light tan back grounds.. the other wanted tans and creams and really preferred tans.

My original request was cream or white backgrounds with any colors other than pastels or neons... and I wanted each point to be different.  I later changed to say cream or tan backgrounds. I never thought of tan as a background.. felt it would be too dark, but once I worked with it and saw these blocks I fell in love!

I have received 1 set and they are great.  Will post pictures of them and the other 2 sets once they arrive.

BUT here are the ones I sent out...

The primary colors with white backgrounds...

And the "old timey" ones with the cream / tan backgrounds...

I can't wait to see all the ones I receive together. I have 2 made to go with them so far. Will probably make 3 more to end up with 20 blocks. I like square quilts. :-)

"Belle"

Star Flowers

The StarFlower quilt is done... bound... washed... crinkled! I love using all cotton fabric and batting and thread so that when the quilt is washed and dried it will crinkle up.. gives it an old-timey look and feel to me.

This blocks for this quilt came from a group of quilty ladies. One of them donated fabric for the back. I have to admit that the first time I saw it in person I had two thoughts.. first I LOVED IT.. it is very much a ME fabric!  And secondly, I am not so sure this is going to work with the quilt top. I had seen a photo of the fabric, but it was brighter in person and the top is more muted soft colors. Well I love them together! I feel like this is a 2 for 1 quilt.. the front is soothing and comforting and the back is cheery and uplifting!  I think I am going to look at backing fabric a lot differently from now on... not sure I will always aim to be matchy with the front.

I had 4 extra blocks so made up a pillowcase that holds the quilt for shipping and storage and can be used with a pillow if our friend wants.

The quilting is straight line and creates these neat Xs and Star patterns on the back.  My sweet quilty husband, whom I affectionately call the mad quilter, quilted this. The man loves to quilt and is sooo fast!

Cannot wait to mail this off next week... wish I could see the recipient's face when she sees it!

The best part of quilting is giving it away!

"Belle"

Finally some time to sew!

A group of quilting friends are making a love quilt for one of our own. I am the collector of blocks. Saturday my quilting hubby and I had time to lay them out and get them put together into a top. I think it looks great. Tomorrow we plan to get it sandwiched together with the back and some batting and then "Let the quilting begin!"

On a very different note, I had a bit of fun this afternoon. My mother needed a little happy for a young couple in her church expecting their first child.  They are using bees in the nursery decor. I whipped up 3 burp cloths for them.

The how-to for this project can be found here: Basket-O-Burpies

2 things I did differently. The instructions say sew down the top and bottom before the sides. I did that with the first one and ended up with a bit of a crease in the diaper when I sewed down the sides. So for the other two I just sewed the top then the sides and then the bottom. Worked great! Also, I used a straight stitch with the first one.. and it looks fine.. but with the other two I did a small zigzag right along the edge of the fabric. I really like the way it looks.

I will most definitely be whipping up some more of these for future baby showers!

"Belle"

Whole lot of quilting NOT going on....

Seems life has been flying in a zillion directions lately... add that to extreme heat and humidity... and you find a quilter too tired to quilt!  That is a sad thing.  I have continued to get some flowers made for my GFG and am working on piecing another section together. And I have 2 other projects in the works...

First... I worked on some blocks for a quilt being made for a friend with cancer. This is the Starflower Block found at Quilter's Cache. I love the way it looks and it really isn't a difficult block... this from someone who hates matching up points with triangles!  My friend loves calicoes, so that is the fabric being used. I am not a huge calico fan, so don't have a lot on hand... and what I do is pink and green (Gee, I wonder why! LOL!) I think the blocks I whipped up this weekend turned out well..

Second, I will soon start cutting those t-shirts below to make a t-shirt quilt for my son's girlfriend. I have made one other t-shirt quilt in my 6 years as a quilter. Love how they turn out, but whew!  they are work.... she is worth it and I have an idea to do something a little different, at least different for me, so that is motivating me.

See the GFGs in the picture? They are coming along. I need to make more white ones!

I have several other projects I NEED to get started and more than I can list that I want to do!

Our temps are still high, but the humidity has dropped.. so maybe my energy will come back and I will get motivated to spend more time in Sewing Central getting things done!

Keep Stitchin'

"Belle"