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