Thank you all for stopping by and giving your input regarding binding. 
The giveaway winner is Debbie - Sheltered Stitches. Congratulations, Debbie!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my version of Sea Stars, the newest pattern release by Cheryl over at  Meadow Mist Designs. I was excited to test another this pattern for Cheryl. First, I'm drawn to her striking designs and her patterns are always clear, simple, and easy to follow. Second, I love half-square triangles. Third, for some time I have wanted to try a quilt with the plus sign block. Fourth, I thought it would be perfect in grays and yellows, a combination I've been wanting to try even though it is not my combination of choice at all.



I struggled a bit with piecing. Wrong moon or something. Every block needed ripper attention for some reason or other. I persevered and pushed through the mental fog to victory. Here it is all pieced and ironed. Really like how the blocks come together and form the stars. Ingenious! Am very happy with how the fabrics play together. Sometimes you just don't know how they are going to turn out, you know what I mean?


Quilted! Wasn't sure how to quilt this one. Thought about going with my favorite wavy lines, but it just didn't seem the right choice. Thought about single straight lines on the diagonal but wasn't sure how that would go with the velour backing (and no time for experimenting). So, straight line to the right of seams in both directions. Love how it turned out! Simple, doesn't distract from the block pattern, still soft and cuddly. Quilting success!

Cheryl has another winner with Sea Stars - striking design in a clear, easy to follow pattern. I love that about her patterns.
Giveaway! Closed.
Ok, folks. Time for a giveaway. For a PDF copy of the Sea Stars patterns how about giving me some binding input. What color would you bind this quilt with - one of the grays? one of the yellows? maybe white? For one entry comment letting me know what your binding choice would be. For an additional entry let me know if you are a follower, new or old.  Please make sure I have a way of contacting you. Winner will be drawn Monday, June 29.

Sea Stars can be found on Etsy, Craftsy, and Payhip.

Here is my first entry for the Festival of Half Square Triangles hosted by Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations.  The linky party runs from April 16 - 22.



About a week or so ago my dear husband asked me if I could make something quilty "with triangles like you did before" for the employees' club auction on April 25. "I think I can, honey, but I need to get the baby's quilt done first." What was I thinking?? I could have, maybe should have, just put the baby's quilt aside for a couple days and done this topper for the auction, but, oh no, for once I decided to stick to my resolution, good or bad. So, I proceeded to work on baby's quilt while putzing at different designs layouts for a patriotic table topper. (Went with patriotic because I thought it would have the widest appeal and because I had a charm pack of Prairie Paisley II) Friday (April 13) he informs me that the auction has been moved up to April 18 (which also happened to be my birthday. OH Gads!! Planning and designing phase - over!  Pick a layout and go with it. No time to dilly dally now.

But first, determined to finish baby's quilt first I basted, quilted and bound it by Monday a.m. (will share later) then proceeded to the table topper.  (Sorry, no work-in-progress photos this time, folks.) Pieced triangles Monday afternoon. Cut and ironed triangles Monday evening and lay them out for a final look see. Pieced rows Tuesday before supper. Stopped for supper and evening going ons.  Then discover (Oh crud!) that I don't have a suitable binding. It NEEDS something navy. Not a snitch of anything navy in the house. (how can that be? Navy is one of my favorite colors??? Note to self: rectify the lack of navy and navy-like fabric in stash) So, ran out for something that I hoped would work.

Finally back at it from 9:30 p.m. until 12:30 p.m. - finished piecing top, ironed, made binding, quilted, and attached binding to front. Up at 5:30 with baby and to see dear husband off to work. "Honey, you will have to stop over and pick up that table topper you need this afternoon at 1 p.m. I need to finish the binding." He is so cool. "No, big deal, sweetheart. You have plenty of time."  Finished sewing down the binding by 8:30 a.m. Took some photos. Husband picked up at 9:30 a.m.


Impressed my children, which is always kinda cool.  "Wow, Mommy! You did that last night?!"  It got finished on time and nobody went underloved or undernourished.  Teamwork, folks, teamwork : )

PS:  I think I more than earned that free motion quilting foot I got for my birthday : ) Yay!!!
PPS:  The French Silk birthday pie he brought home for me was delish!!!

Linking up with the Festival of Half Square Triangles linky party.  A lot of great handiwork has been linked. I wonder how I'll do?

With some very helpful tweaking from my husband, this is the final layout of my Essence half square triangle table topper. I really enjoy when my husband comes and sees me when I'm in my crafting space. But then he decides to swap a couple blocks. "Wait a minute. Who said you could touch?" Oh...wait another minute. I really like that better! I never thought we would be sharing time of quilting. It's so very, very cool.


My rows all labeled and ready to be pieced. I work from top to bottom, left to right, always. I decided with my very first quilting project that I needed to establish a system and stick with it so that hopefully my blocks and rows stay in the proper order without too much extra thought.

Pieced and ready to be quilted

which was not without it's mishaps

But all turned out well.  See, I told ya not to worry (kind reminder to myself : ) Here it is in all its fresh quiltedness (is that a word?).

This was a gift for my parents. I wanted to do something special for them this year as they spent a lot of time over the summer doing up extra veggies from their garden for us.  We were in the process of moving to northeast Minnesota and weren't able to put a garden in this year. It's nice to be able to go to the freeze for green beans or corn. I'm so grateful for the extra work everyone put in.

Working with a charm pack of Essence from Moda.  Getting set to make my first ever half square triangles (HST).

Am a little bit nervous. Not so much about the sewing part but about the cutting. Cutting is so, so final. Have them all marked. Am ready to stitch and cut. Hope I like how I have them all paired up. This is the beginning of a square fall table topper.