To Spin a Star Top

Happy Spring! We are having a typical Colorado spring here--it was 70 degrees on Thursday and I wore shorts on my afternoon walk and then Friday it was barely 45 degrees with a cold wind, and now we are having some snowflakes falling.  

This beautiful, scrappy quilt top is my secret sewing for the last month and a half! It is called To Spin a Star and is one of Diane's (from Butterfly Threads) brilliant quilt designs. I got to pattern test it for her. I added some blocks to mine to make it square, so mine is 75" x 75". It would very easy to make a smaller or bigger version. Diane has the pattern download on sale for $5 over on her website right now, here is the link:

https://www.butterflythreadsquilting.com/2019/03/to-spin-star-new-pattern-now-available.html

The blocks are made quite quickly because they use either the Essential Triangle Tool or the Easy Angle--I already had both in my ruler collection and you probably do too. The pattern is also very 2.5 strip friendly, so I really dug into my 2.5 strip bin and used up lots of scraps.  I love how Diane designed the sashing, so a secondary block is formed at the block corners. 

This has been my Drop Everything and Make it DrEAMi! for February and March. 

https://www.mmmquilts.com/2019/03/dreami-26.html#more

How would you have it quilted? I'd love to hear your recommendations. Thank you Diane for trusting me with your new pattern!

For Slow Sunday Stitching, I am binding for my friend Rachel. She is cranking out projects with her longarm for the both of us!

My One Monthly Goal (OMG) for April is to complete this top. I have all of the blocks done, but I need to put it together.

My daughter is coming to Denver for a recruiting trip for her college on April 10th. I got my substitutes lined up, a hotel room booked, and hair appointments scheduled. We will get to hang out for four days and four nights--for girl time, shopping, eating, soaking, etc.! I can't wait!!!! Have a great week.

Spring Staycation

 For my spring break, I had a lovely staycation with my hubby. We celebrated his birthday with a soaking afternoon down in Ouray Hot Springs and dinner. Then, I got down to my secret sewing--it will be revealed on April 1st and it is such scrappy goodness. 

I have a good friend that is expecting her first grandchild, a girl, in July. I decided to use a couple of Olive's Flower Garden charm packs and some coordinating scraps to make a baby quilt. I actually made enough half square triangles to make two tops--I might set the other blocks differently. I need to get some minky for the backing and then I will quilt it up with some straight line quilting.

I also made some Humble Blocks for Lori Holt's Vintage Block Along

 and the Front Yard Flower Block too.

Although, spring has arrived according to the calendar, here in Colorado it has meant snow, rain, hail, and sunshine usually in one day. We planted some tulip bulbs last fall and they are starting to pop up, but they are not close to blooming, but my orchid I got for my birthday is!

I am back to work tomorrow relaxed and rejuvenated after my spring break staycation. Have a great week!

Spring Break 2019

 Hello! My Spring Break 2019 has officially begun and it was also National Quilting Day--talk about a dream day.  It was finally sunny out, we have been rather gray this whole month. I celebrated with a trip to one of my local quilt shops for a little stash enhancement.  I bought all the new Bonnie and Camille Little Snippets they had. All the other fabrics were new additions to their sale room and they were pulling more. They had three yards of the white with red polka dots, so I got all of that--I always need basics.

 I spent the rest of the day working on getting caught up with the Threadology blocks. I am not using the fabrics that Fat Quarter Shop is, but instead I have been digging into my Bonnie and Camille stash. These are the six inch blocks two, three, and four.

This is my one large 12 inch block--I have not been making the large blocks for the backing as I am not sure that I will be making a pieced backing. I am trying not to have any repeats of my fabrics. My background is just Kona white.

For Slow Sunday Stitching, I plan on finishing binding this quilt for my friend Rachel.

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2019/03/slow-sunday-stitching_17.html

I am also working on my secret sewing for Diane at Butterfly Threads Quilting. I will get to reveal my top on April first. I am behind on Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage blocks and the Harry Potter Quilt Along blocks, but with a whole week of sewing ahead, I will get back on track.

 My daughter's Spring Break was this last week and she went with a friend to Argentina to visit one of their friends that is there for her semester abroad.

She got to really practice her Spanish and indulge in some warm weather. Hopefully, I will get to meet her in Denver next month on a recruiting trip for her college. She was just hired as a senior admissions intern for next year and this summer--I am considering a trip to hang out with her over summer. She will be interviewing applicants and learning more about the other side of the admissions process.

I don't seem to be posting on my blog as often because I am using Instagram much more and you can find me there @tanyaquiltsinco

Flying Doggies Baby Quilt

 Greetings! I started this project last Sunday--it is a baby gift for a teacher friend's new grandson. I used some leftover Puppy Love by Riley Blake Fabrics. I made a Fat Quarter Snowballs Baby Quilt back in June for the Fat Quarter Shop. I had a bunch of fabrics leftover and I added in some leftover Kona solids from my Post Card from Sweden. My inspiration was a free pattern from Robert Kaufman Remixed Geese pattern:

http://www.robertkaufman.com/assets/pdf/RemixedGeeseQuiltPattern.pdf

My flying doggies are smaller and finish 2x4 inches. I made them with the square and rectangle method.

 There are 242 flying geese/flying doggies!

I pieced it with my new Juke and I quilted it on my Pfaff using the wavy stitch. I did it on a two inch grid with white thread. By the way, Connecting Threads has their Essential Threads on sale this month for 30% off. I ordered in a dozen white spools because my Pfaff and my Juki love it. It is good quality and a great price.

The only thing I bought for this quilt was the Sew Lush Blueprint for the backing. Sew Lush is like double sided minky, so it is even thicker and fluffier than regular minky. There are even more fibers all over my sewing room than usual! I have not washed it yet, but right now it is 43 inches square. I also pieced some White & Warm batting pieces for this one. 

 I had thought about making this project my OMG for March, but since it is already done there really isn't any point. Instead my March OMG is to get my To Spin a Star quilt top together for its reveal on April 1st. https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2019/03/one-monthly-goal-march-link-up.html

Ron, Dumbledore, & DrEAMi

Hello! I have not posted in awhile because I have not finished much that I can share with you all. Last weekend, I made the Ron and Dumbledore blocks for the 

Harry Potter Quilt Alongs I have been working on. Lately it feels like all I have been accomplishing are blocks for sew alongs which is not the most exciting or fulfilling. We did not have President's Day off from work this week and to make matters worse, we had parent/teacher conferences which meant late nights most of the week. We did have Friday off due to the late conference nights.

On Friday, we woke to a couple of inches of snow and it snowed all day. Diane from https://www.butterflythreadsquilting.com had asked me if I wanted to test a pattern for her earlier this month and of course I jumped at the chance. I already made 15 blocks, earlier in February and I whipped up the other 15 on my Friday off. This has definitely been my Drop Everything and Make It! for February https://www.mmmquilts.com/2019/02/dreami-25.html

I can't reveal it until April 1st when the pattern is released, but it is a fun scrappy one.

One of my teacher friends just had her first grandson arrive yesterday. He was two months early, but he is 3.5 pounds and expected to be fine with a little time in the NICU. I don't have any boy baby quilts ready to go, so I was on a mission today. I saw this Robert Kaufman Remixed Geese Quilt on my Pinterest board--I love how bright and cheerful it is.

I dug into my leftover Puppy Love fabrics and my Kona solid scraps to make my own Remixed Geese Quilt with bright primary colors. I am making my geese blocks finish at 2x4 inches. I think these will be fun to play with setting them and I should be able to get it done pretty quickly.

I took some time today to run up to a nearby fabric store because they had gotten some of the Little Snippets line in and had it on sale for $9 a yard--they only had five bolts, but I got a half yard of each along with some whites for my stash. 

I hope to get the baby quilt pieced this week, so I can quilt it next weekend and finally have another finish. My hubby just put a movie on and of course I have a pile of quilts ready for binding, so good night and have a great week!

WIPs Galore

My new machine has really been getting a workout! My favorite quilts to make are scrap quilts, but they take longer with cutting so many random fabrics. In the past, I have joined So Scrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I get impatient and just get my blocks done before the year is up. I have some leftover Medallion Log Cabin blocks, so I made a couple of yellow blocks for RSC19. There is a link on my right side sidebar.

How to make these blocks is under my tutorials tab, if you want to try some!

The Harry Potter Monogram block instructions posted yesterday, so I got busy on it. I still need to make the Luna block for the other version, so that is on today's agenda.

 These Vintage Block Along blocks were also on today's agenda. This is the most recent one, Egg Money.

These were her Humble Blocks from last week. You can find tutorials on her blog:
http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com

I got started on my Village blocks too! I had planned on this being a Leader/Ender project for 2019, but I like it too much to stretch it all year...

I got 30 houses done and I look forward to making some more.

I spent some time yesterday going to some local thrift stores in search of a cabinet/table for my new Juki. I think it would be perfect to have both my Pfaff and my Juki set up at all times--it will mean sacrificing my comfy chair to make room, but might be worth it. I didn't find a cabinet/table, but I found this milk glass pedestal dish. I have been on the lookout for one for a couple of years. It was $5, so sold!

Your scissors can hang from the rim and many quilters have made a pin cushion to go in the bowl. I plan on leaving the bowl portion empty so it can hold my Clover clips I use for binding and the thread or perle cotton I am using.

I plan on embroidering this Spool block for my label for my Spools 2 Quilt for Slow Sunday Stitching this evening and I also have two quilts all ready for binding 

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2019/02/slow-sunday-stitching_10.html

Have a great week!

New Arrival

 Some of you who have followed my blog for a long time probably remember that I unexpectedly had to buy a new sewing machine last April--I had worn out my Pfaff Ambition 1.5 in less than seven years. I kind of scrambled and ended up buying another Pfaff, but a Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2. It has a lot more features like a thread cutter and the needle down feature--I needed a machine with a buttonhole stitch for appliqué and the wavy quilting stitch I rely on, so I did not consider a Juki last April because it is a straight stitch only. The insides of my new Pfaff are all plastic and I will likely wear it out rather quickly like the last one, so I was thinking another work horse machine may be the solution for me. 

I had been doing some research and decided I would get a Juki TL2010Q this spring. I told my hubby about my plan and he told me not to wait and just order one in. He is totally off the hook for Valentine's Day and my next birthday now! There are not any local Juki dealers near me and even the ones in Denver do not stock this machine, so I bought it sight unseen. It arrived on Thursday and I am so impressed! It is very basic as far as threading it, but it flies through fabric with 1500 stitched per minute. You can push a button on the machine to cut the thread or rock back on the foot pedal. It also has a needle down feature. The only criticism I have so far is the lighting on it is lacking, so I will figure out had to add some more light...

  Rachel, my friend who got her longarm in August, quilted my Scrap Dance Two Step Mystery Quilt for me. 

 I picked it up from her on Tuesday afternoon and put the binding on it and then spent every evening stitching it down. I finished it last night and washed it this morning. It shrunk to 68 inches square.

 Rachel did a beautiful job with the quilting--I love the pattern she selected and the light green thread.

This is a wedding gift for two teachers who got married in August and I can't wait to give it to them this week!

I added the final borders to my Spools 2 Quilt on my new Juki. I need to finish its label and get my backing together.

 Since I wanted to play on my Juki, I made a yellow curved log cabin block last night for the RSC19.

 I also whipped up the first blocks for the Threadology Quilt Along with the Fat Quarter Shop this morning. Here is the link for information:

https://blog.fatquartershop.com/2019-charity-quilt-along-block-1/

 Next up were the Harry Potter Quilt Along blocks. Above is Hedwig and below is the Ron Selfie block. You can find links on my right hand sidebar.

I am working on my Farm Sweet Farm blocks for that quilt along, but they are not done yet as they involve appliqué. That is going to be an amazing quilt!

I have a queen sized quilt all ready to bind during the Super Bowl for Slow Sunday Stitching

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

Have a great week!