The Stars Align

When I first jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon, I saw a quilt block that I loved, loved, loved from Ellison Lane Quilts. I finally got around to making my own quilt with this starflower block. (Which is more than I can say for most of the other quilts I've pinned!)

(I just looked at the above photo and realized how awesome my piecing looks. Go me! I feel like a grown up quilter.)

I made several blocks and laid out the quilt. Of course, it's never quite as big as you want.

Luckily, I had plenty of the white on white fabric that I was able to use for sashing and a border. I love the floating stars affect of this quilt.

I'm donating this quilt to a cancer survivor walk in honor of a friend from work. So it's only fitting that I took a photo of this beautiful quilt on campus. 

One last photo.... I completed this project over spring break. My mom was visiting me and although I only had one finish for the week; she had THREE. Go mom! Here's our collage of finished projects:

I did spend a good amount of time over spring break working on a massive quilting project. The quilting is now completed - yay! - but I'm finishing the binding. I can't wait to show you that quilt.

North by Midwest

I've talked about the quilt block exchange I did with my guild in 2009. We made blocks out of black and white material and though my blocks sat untouched for several years, I finally put them together for a quilt for my cousin's graduation.

Those blocks are still in circulation! My mom also did the exchange. She used eight of her 20 blocks for a quilt several years ago. When we found out my cousin (a different one; I have A LOT of cousins!) was getting married and wanted a quilt in black and white, she pulled out her remaining 12 blocks for us to put together. We added some color for pop. I call this North by Midwest.

I think we've finally used all of our black and white blocks.

And since I have neglected my personal blog for so long, I thought I'd throw in this photo from the wedding. It was a fun night.

Covered in Threads 2013 Guild Challenge

As in past years, the women I quilt with decided on an annual challenge for our Covered in Threads quilt guild. You'll recall that the 2013 challenge was to create a polka dot quilt. Last weekend we gathered at my house for a few days of sewing during which we showed our polka dot projects. It's always fun to see what people come up with:

We also decided on our 2014 challenge. After several suggestions and a group vote, we decided that our next project will be a log cabin quilt.

This will be the sixth year we have a challenge. I love that we've been able to keep the tradition going.

Jungle Safari

This quilt was finished last summer but I just received the photos. It's a baby quilt for my husband's cousin's son, Max.

My mother-in-law and I worked on this quilt together. We decided to use the pattern I'd chosen for my solid's quilt challenge. The blocks are bit wonkier and it's cool to see how the prints play in to the quilt compared to all solids.

Here's a photo of me taken while we were measuring the batting during a spring quilt retreat.
 

I was uncertain of the colors. Max's mom had sent a photo of the jungle safari bedding she wanted us to try and match. It seemed like a lot of different prints and colors. But I think they work against the khaki and green.

We also found the great fabric for the back. It had all the prints and colors and matched everything perfectly. Most will think we matched the fabric on the front to the back which isn't the case; it just worked out that way.

 And here is my quilt partner, modeling the project.

Sparklepunch for Auna

I know I've said this before but I love making baby quilts for friends - especially those who truly appreciate the time and effort that goes in to the process. My friend, Jessica, is pregnant with her second baby and when I asked what colors she wanted, she practically jumped for joy. Because it was her second, she didn't want to ask me for a quilt. (I had just made a quilt for her first, born in 2012.) Nonsense, I told her. ALL babies deserve their own quilt, regardless of birth order!

Baby #2 is a girl and Jessica requested purples and greens. I love this color combo! I sent her several photos and asked her to choose the pattern she wanted.

She picked Sparklepunch. This quilt pattern is courtesy of Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson! I had seen the quilt on her blog and then it was featured in a quilting magazine I received. I could have made the quilt without the pattern but it was nice to have the measurements. It's the type of quilt tha tyou have to lay it out as you go. All the pieces are intermixed for the pattern.

I love the finished product and hopefully little baby Auna will love it, too!

I quilted this with an overall free motion pattern of stars and loops - one of my original go-to free motion patterns.

This is the 101st quilt I've ever made. Bazinga!

Chezney's Quilt

I was thrilled to learn my cousin's daughter was accepted and planned to attend IU. It's always great to have another Hoosier in the family! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend her high school graduation party earlier this summer but my mom and I planned to make her a quilt for her dorm room.

She requested hot pink, gold, and black. My mom wanted to do a log cabin and since she had a lot of pink scraps and I had a lot of gold scraps, I suggested we make them wonky. I was a little unsure of the color scheme but after putting together some blocks and laying it out, I fell in love.

These colors look awesome together!

We didn't finish the quilt in time for Chezney's move-in to the residence hall but luckily we were all together for the first IU tailgate to give it to her. 

Polka!

The 2013 Covered in Threads Quilt Guild Challenge was to make a quilt project with polka dot fabric. When this was decided earlier this year, I was very excited because I already had some polka dot fabric that I was ready to cut in to. I decided on a literal translation of polka dot quilt but using my polka dot fabric to make a larger polka dot design. I played around with a few different layout options:

When I finally had the layout I wanted, I used appliqued the circles on to the quilt. I thought that would be the hard part (I don't particularly like applique!) To continue the polka dot theme, I decided to quilt it using a pebble style quilting. THAT was the hard part. I LOVE the look of pebble quilting but it. took. for. ever.

Here's a shot of the quilt in progress; you can see the quilting I've started in the middle.

It was hours and hours of sewing but I love, love, love how it turned out. 

I am DEFINITELY keeping this quilt for myself. It's currently hanging in my sewing room.

The title of the quilt is very appropriate and it's also an homage to my Polish family.

UPDATED: You guys, I just added this to my list of completed quilt projects and it's the 100th quilt I've finished. YAY ME!!