Second Starburst and the April bee block

I've made a second Starburst quilt top.  Since this one has no definite recipient, it is sitting while I do some other things instead.  Perhaps I don't need to buy as much fabric next time since I still have more extras.  Or, I need to make more coordinating pillows.

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And the April block for Beejeebers for Lindsay based on this tutorial.  I'm not wonderful at curves yet and this one needed some large pieces of fabric.  I tried to use some scraps for the smaller parts but had to turn to larger pieces for the outsides of the circles.  Can you notice the pieced brown background?  If I don't look carefully, it seems as though I actually matched up the perimeter of the circle.  

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Waiting

I've been waiting for an order of batting and fabric for awhile so I could finish up two quilts in progress.  It is currently sitting at the local UPS distribution center less than 5 miles away waiting for Monday.  Only slightly vexing because two weekends have passed since it was ordered. Without further ado, here is the work of the past two weekends.

While waiting I have pieced the backing for the Freebird Unwind quilt.  

I pieced two complete Starburst blocks and 2 partial blocks while I wait for the Moda Snow to arrive.  I decided to use up the additional Stonehenge Gold leaf Metallic fabric leftover from my sister in law's quilt and make the same quilt for an unknown recipient.  I might donate it to one of the local school auctions, but I haven't decided.  

I organized the solids in my stash by color and decided to make a HST quilt with the different blues.  The abundance of blue in the stash originates from the blue obsession of the 5 year old for at least the last 3.5 years.  Her favorite colors are Pacific and Ocean from the Kona Color Card.  There's a mix of FreeSpirit, Art Gallery, Michael Miller, Northcott, Kona, and Bella Solids.  There are quite a few that are very similar in shade, but I'll do my best to pair them up with contrasting shades.  We'll see how that goes.  Squares are cut and ready.  

I'm still pondering how to mark all the diagonals on the squares if I'm unsure which ones will get paired up.  I guess I need to decide if it is efficient to just mark the line on all of them to do more random pairing, or plan it out ahead of time and draw half as many lines.

24 hours have elapsed since I wrote the above and I've decided to plan and draw the lines as I go rather than all at once.  I need a few additional blues to round things out.  Only the navy and the light powder blue ones have been matched up so they are disproportionately represented in this random arrangement for a photograph. Oh what fun the trimming will be!  

With my scraps sorted into bins by color, small snippets and strings, I decided to try to use up my strings by making Scrapper's Delight blocks from Sunday Morning Quilts.  I wanted to try it after looking at the book but then made up my mind to do so after the Pink Chalk blog post linked above.  My strings seemed pretty dark so I stopped without completing the three blocks yet.  

Hopefully I can get Starburst 2 blocks completed and maybe the Unwind quilt basted this week.  

Unwinding Freebird

For my 4 year old niece, I made a Jaybird Quilts pattern, Unwind, using a Freebird jelly roll I purchased in my first year of quilting.  

I see the stars right away and have to think about the zig zags.  My daughter saw the zig zags (her name for them), and had to be told about the star shapes.  Still waiting on the backing fabric to arrive.  I found some Freebird yardage for $3.50/yard at Del Ray Fabrics and figured it would be better to get that for the back and save some other fabrics for a different quilt back.  

I ended up needing to trim the blocks to 12.25" because I didn't manage to sew the triangle pieces as straight as I should have.  Perhaps next weekend I'll manage to baste and quilt it.  My niece's birthday isn't until May so I have some time to finish this one.

March Mittens

Laura asked for pairs of mittens using the tutorial from Bee in My Bonnet.  I did really like how I could easily use up odds and ends of white fabric without cutting big pieces.  

 I need to improve my technique of sewing across a square on a diagonal.  The machine did not suck the fabric down but it got close and it doesn't end up nice and square without trimming for me.

Now the 5 year old would like me to make her a pair of mittens.  

Finished Starburst

Melissa happened to announce her Starburst quilt a long at the same time I was pondering which pattern to make for my sister-in-law's quilt.  She had already picked out her choice of fabrics and I was trying to decide what pattern after only being in her house 3 times, the latest being 3 years ago.  This seemed to be perfect to match with her fabric choice, Northcott Gold Leaf Metallic.  

Since it was about 10 days before her birthday and I still needed to quilt the her sons' quilts, I decided to quilt it with just a small meandering stitch.  Thank you Melissa for your great tutorial.

 Fabrics: Moda Snow and Northcott Gold Leaf Metallic
Pattern: Starburst by Melissa Corry (the 32" block size)
Quilted by me with a smaller meandering stipple
Backing: Ivory flannel by Kaufman

Size: About 76 x 76"

Small rounds

 I finished the two baby quilts for a friend having twins this week using the leftovers from Nephew #2's quilt.

The single circle is quilted with meandering loops and bound with Lace Elements.  The double circle is quilted with swirls and bound with a print from Kate Spain's Cuzco.

I didn't realize that taking pictures without the flash would make the quilting stand out better in the picture until after I took the picture.  I did not develop a good rhythm for uniform sized swirls, but am glad I finally tried it as an all over design.    

Originally I intended to try a different type of quilting in the circles but consulted the 5 year old style consultant and quilt photographer who thought that the swirls should continue.  

Now I just need to decide what my next project should be, a dress for the 5 year old or starting a quilt for other niece and nephew who live just a few miles away from the other two.  Politically, perhaps I should start the quilts.  Hope you are having a wonderful day.

Nephew quilt #2

Nephew #2 quilt is finally finished and ready to ship.  Quilt holder was working today until dark.  I wanted to have it ready to go out in the mail tonight, so I only have inside, dark pictures.  I have two baby quilts to make with the extra blocks so I will try to get better pictures of those.  

 I have 7.25" horizontal sashing strips between the circles because it was the size of my center squares for the circles.  The vertical strips were 2.75 to match the finished HST size.  The quilt was made bigger to try to make it nearly identical in size to his brother's quilt.

 And I wish I would have looked at the back strip to match up the pattern better before I had sewn it to one side of the backing.

Pattern:  based on Round and Round by Thimble Blossoms but with different measurements.

Finished size:  about 70 x 86"

Fabrics: Cuzco by Kate Spain, Spot on by Kaufman (binding), Pearl Bracelets and Jewels by Lizzy House, Ironwork by Sandi Henderson, Ta Dot by Michael Miller, Oval and Nature Elements by Art Gallery, Metro Living by Kaufman, Prince Charming by Tula Pink.  Backing is from Birds and Bees by Tula Pink and Bella Mist and Michael Miller Solids in Boy.

Quilted: by me with an all over stipple.

Number of machine needles needed to quilt:  three, a new record for me

Number of pierced safety pins:  two.  oops.  

I unpicked the seam for the bee block and it looks a little better now.  Still is odd with the smaller center piece.  5 days until a long weekend.  YAY!