Celestial Star QAL: Link Up Your Final Projects HERE!!!

Wahoo!! It's time to link up your final Celestial Star projects!! Can you believe it?! It got a little quiet there towards the end, but this has been such a fun QAL! I can't wait to see everyone's projects all together!!

PLEASE read the link up guidelines carefully!!!!!

There are different categories for linking up your projects. Please read through each category description before picking the category you want to enter in, as there are different options for how you can link up your projects. YOU CAN ONLY ENTER EACH PROJECT ONCE! Do not link up the same project in more than one category... see details for more info.


Before we get into all that, I want to go over the awesome prizes!!

First, I want to give a HUGE shout out to our sponsors who gave out prizes earlier in the QAL.

Pink Castle Fabrics for two beautiful fat eight bundles!

Fat Quarter Shop for giving away two $25 gift certificates!

  

I Don't Do Dishes AND Material Girl Quilts for their amazing FQ bundles!

For the Grand Prizes:

1 Block projects: 1 - $20 Gift Certificate donated by Westwood Acres 

2-4 Block projects: $50 Gift Certificate donated by the Fat Quarter Shop

5+ Block quilts: $50 Gift Certificate donated by I don't do dishes AND 1 - fat eight bundle of Mochi Linen dots donated by Knotted-Threads

More Grand Prizes: Winners will be picked at random from all entries.

Fat quarter bundle of Butterfly Dance by Cinderberries donated by Llama Fabrics

 

Liberty Scrap Pack bundle donated by Queen Bee Fabrics

Birch by Joel Dewberry Charm Pack donated by I don't do dishes

How to Win!!

The categories are:

• 1 Block
• 2-4 Blocks
• 5+ Blocks

The simple rules:

If you only made 1 block. Enter your project in the "1 Block" category.
If you made a quilt top with 2-4 Blocks, enter it in the "2-4 Blocks" category.
If you made a quilt top with 5 or more blocks, enter it in the "5+ Blocks" category.

pretty basic right?!


The Complex rules:

If you made 2 or more blocks that are in separate projects, say 3 pillows, you can enter them each individually in the "1 Block" category (creating 3 different entries), OR you can enter them all together in the "2-4 Blocks" category (1 entry), or a combination of the two (1 block entered in the 1 block category, and the other two blocks entered in the 2-4 Block category = 2 total entries). YOU MAY NOT ENTER THE SAME BLOCK IN TWO CATEGORIES! (if you enter 3 blocks in the second category, you can't enter one of those three blocks in the 1 block category. Got it?!) Same goes for the 5+ Blocks category.

Here are two of my finished pillows.

 (a pillow I made for a friend, I used the included border pattern with this one)

Say I was going to enter these two pillows. I could have two entries in the "1 Block" category, or one entry in the "2-4 Blocks" category.

IF your multiple blocks are sewn together in one project, like a quilt top, you may NOT break up the blocks individually and enter in separate entries. A single project counts as one entry only. Only separate projects may be combined into a single entry.

 Does that make sense??? I am not sure how many people made projects with 2-4 blocks, but I do know that a few people made more than one single item. SO this way I know there can be at least one entry in each category, if that ends up to be how it is... anyway.


More guidelines:
In this blog post I said I thought I remembered saying that a quilt top with 5+ blocks does not have to be quilted and bound, but the top does need to be finished to count. I tried to find which post I said that in, but I couldn't. But if I did, I'll stick to my word. A large quilt with this pattern is a lot of work, (trust me! I know!) so I think if you've finished an entire quilt top of blocks, it should still be eligible for a prize. SO for the "5+ Blocks" category, if it's a complete quilt top (NOT five or more individual blocks) it does NOT have to be a finished quilt. 

Sound good?!!



Alright, ready, Set, LINK UP!! :)


1 Block Projects

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   



2-4 Blocks Projects

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   



5+ Blocks Projects

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Winners will be announced in a week from today, on Monday October 6th!

Good luck!! and thanks for joining me!!

I'll be sure to share the rest of my progress shots this week and my finished quilt by Monday!! :)

Sponsor Introduction: Knotted-Thread

As the Celestial Star  QAL gets closer to the end (final link up opens Sept 29th - next week!!), I am excited to introduce you to one more amazing sponsor, Knotted-Thread!!

Jennifer is awesome! She makes amazing projects, has a fabulous shop with great products and prices! (she really does have great prices - which always is a good thing.) Anyway, we've been friends for a long time now, and it's been a joy getting to know her. One of the best things that always stands out to me about Jennifer, is her willingness to help people. Two years ago she organized a group on Flickr to make quilts for Hurricane Sandy victims. It was maybe one of the first experiences I've had, besides the do.Good Stitches group, where I've been able to contribute to quilts for a great cause such as this. It was a neat experience, and anyway, it really stuck with me, and made a big impact on me. and I know that little story doesn't do her justice, so I'll just say, yep, Jennifer is awesome. :) Here's some more about her fabulous shop...

Pretty Potent by Anna Maria Horner

 Knotted-Thread is an online retail fabric shop specializing in designer fabric bundles. We stock our shop with the latest in designer fabrics to meet all of your quilting needs. Knotted-Thread offers complete line bundles as well as smaller partial bundles and custom bundles that can only be found at Knotted-Thread! We also offer notions like Aurifil thread and patterns as well as designer flannel for extra soft backing on your quilts.

Knotted-Thread was started in 2012 by Jennifer Istok. An avid quilter, Jennifer decided to start her fabric business as a side business to her elementary teaching position. She ran her business from a spare bedroom and cut, folded, and packaged all of the orders herself. Jennifer takes her business very seriously and handles every email, transaction and package personally. Knotted-Thread was Jenn's "someday" dream until one day she decided to make that someday  today. Why wait for someday to start your dreams if you can make them a reality now? 

Hatbox by Alexia Marcelle Abegg

Currently, Knotted-Threads is running a summer special on yardage. In the shop there is a section entitled "Summer Sale" where you can find $6 yards of fabric! Hurry over because once its gone, its gone!

Moonshine by Tula Pink

She also has super great blender bundles, and mixed bundles that would be great for stash building. :)

 

Sundae Prints - Miss Kate by Bonnie and Camille

Jennifer has generously donated a fat eight bundle of Mochi Linen Dots as part of the grand prize for anyone entering the 5+ blocks category. (prizes is combined with a $50 gift certificate to I Don't Do Dishes).

I think these are gorgeous!!!

Thank you Jennifer!!

Be sure to stop by her shop and see all the great items she has!! :)

Happy sewing everyone!! 

How is it all coming along? 

I am working on my quilt back and should have it finished today - with an update. Can't wait to start quilting!!! I'm super excited to start using this quilt, especially since it's starting to get really cold here. :)

Calling for Mini Quilt Swap Particpants!

Have you heard of the Little Quilt Swap - Sew, Vote, Swap! group on Flickr?? I participated for a few rounds a few years ago when it just started and it was so much fun!!


Here's how it works:

• You make ANY mini you want!! You don't start with a partner, you don't have an inspiration mosaic to go off of, you simply make whatever you want. You can make 1 OR 2 minis.
• The mini needs to be between 12 inch square and 20 inches square. It does not have to be square, just not smaller than 12" and not larger than 20". It can be rectangle, diamond, circle, square, hexagon, etc. (must be finished, so quilted and bound).
• more details on the requirements can be found HERE.

Once your mini is made, you send a picture to the group mama. They upload all the quilt photos to the flickr pool anonymously! Sounds awesome, huh?! No one has any idea who made what. So that means no sneak peek photos!

Once the deadline for entries closes, everyone gets a form (or however they do it now) and you vote on every quilt, your favorite is number 1, next favorite is 2, etc. maybe that's not right, maybe your most favorite is the largest number? Anyway, they work it out. Whoever's quilt gets the most votes, or is the most favorited, gets their number 1 pick. The next person to get the most votes get their favorite quilt, unless it's already taken and they get their next top pick. So on and so forth. It is a really fun way of organizing it!

The better mini quilt you submit (hint, take really good photos too!) then the more likely you are at getting your top pick!! (If you submit 2 mini quilts then you will receive 2 mini quilts!)


And just had a walk down memory lane! lol. Here is my first entry quilt (embarrassed - it's so crooked. But my now good friend received it and said she loved it! So happy to swap with friends!) :)

Kate Spain's fandango line. 

I am actually destashing the rest of this jelly roll if anyone is interested! The only pieces missing are what you see here, about 10" off each print. ($40+shipping). Send me an email with your paypal if you are interested. oops, didn't make this into a selling post...)

Here was my entry for the Christmas swap, I really liked it! and miss it just a little bit now. ;)

Here's the Christmas mini I received. I still love taking this out every Christmas season and hanging it up! :) (I really don't like the way flickr photos are embedded anymore, and that you can browse right from the webpage, but it's kind of cool for now because you can get an idea of some of the minis that were exchanged a few years ago anyway. Visit the group page to see them all!) :)

For the Christmas swap my mini wasn't the highest voted mini, but I still got my number one pick because it wasn't the top pick of the people above me. So if your quilt isn't the most popular, that does not at all mean that you still won't walk away with your favorite mini!! That's the beauty of it since everyone has different tastes. It's great! The other mini I won is perfect in Mabel's room and we use it as a little kitchen rug and keep it with her kitchen set. And the little doggy sleeps on it. :) Perfect. :)



Anyway...

Their current round's deadline for entries just got pushed back to October 30th. They don't have enough participants this round and if they don't get at least 4 more, I think, then it will close and the round will be canceled. I really don't have the time right now to enter, but it's such a fun group so I'd hate for it to close. If you are at all interested, head on over!!! 

You could even do double time, make a celestial star mini, finish by the deadline of Oct 5th for my Celestial Star QAL and then swap it in this group!! :) (that might be crazy though... lol.)

I hope you are all having a great weekend!!

Celestial Star QAL: Winners!

Alright, finally getting to this, then I'm off to bed. It has been one of those days where I feel like I've been in a daze all day, and getting distracted by everything around me. I need sleep. lol. I apologize immensely for the delay!!





The winners of the Quilting link up are...

The winner of the Moda Crossweave Bundle from Material Girl Quilts, winner picked from Instagram, is

 Sarah! 

Here is her beautiful mini that she made in July! I love this!

and the winner of the FQ bundle of Heather Bailey's Up Parasol, donated by I Don't Do Dishes, winner picked from my blog, is...

Cindy!

These blocks are amazing!! I think my favorite is the top right. :)

Congrats Cindy and Sarah!! And thank you everyone who is participating, as well as those of you who are simply following along with the quilt along! It's been a joy!! :) I love seeing all your blocks come together!!

Reminder: the final link up opens on Monday September 29th and will be open until Sunday October 5th at midnight. You will enter your project(s) into specific categories based on the number of total quilt blocks you made. I can't wait to see them finished!! :)

Invite a Friend Day

In my church ward, or congregation, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we have been asked to invite a friend to come to church with us this Sunday. Since we only moved to Idaho a few months ago, I haven't really made any friends that are not already of the LDS faith, or Mormons. As I received a reminder text about this from the missionaries this morning, I instantly thought of inviting my friends who are all over the world! You! :D 

I want to invite you all to church this Sunday. Although I won't be there to attend with you, the church is the same all over the world. One of the greatest things about the church in my opinion. What I learn in church will be the same that you will hear. HERE is a great outline of what you can expect when you visit the church. And since it can be a little daunting going somewhere new for the first time, by yourself, of course you can always bring a friend, or a few, or your family members, I will personally call the ward you will be attending and let them know you are coming and that you are my guest. :) (Or you can always just sneak in and sit in the back and be the strange visitor. It doesn't matter. Everyone is welcome ALL the time!)

In order to let the ward know that you are coming as my friend, you've got to help me out, and I'll help you out to! 

On Mormon.org you can click under the link that says VISIT and then Find A Church, or simply follow this link. 

It will bring you to a map showing you where there are church buildings. See, they are all over the world!

You can enter your address, or just your city, state, and country in the search bar at the top. Enter your street address to help you find the closest building to you.

It will show your area and the church building(s) that are closest. This is the town I live in, and there are four church buildings here.

If you click on one of the church icons, it will pull up the address and the different meeting times that are held in that building. I clicked on my church building, and there are two wards that meet there. One at 9 and one at 11. We go at 11, not out of choice, but because that is the ward my address is assigned to. It makes it easy to keep in contact and serve those that are closest to me in my town, rather than drive all over town to meet with my ward members. You are welcome to go to any time you'd like to. Sometimes there is only one ward that meets in a building, so there may not be options of times. Depending on where you live (like in Utah where there is a high concentration of members) there can be 3 or 4 wards in one building.

If you would like me to phone ahead and let them know that I will be having a guest attend church that day, let me know the information that shows when you click on the church building you will be attending (the church building address, city, state, country, and the name of the ward and time). And let me know what time you will be going to. I will be able to find the information to call them and let them know you are coming so that you can feel welcome when you visit. 

If you are in a different country, it works the same way!! I might have a harder time letting them know you will be there, but I will do my best! Maybe they will speak English, or I also speak German and my husband speaks French and Malagasy if you happen to want to visit the church in Madagascar. We'd LOVE to come with you if you do!  Lol. ;)

If you have any questions, let me know! If you'd like to visit in the future, you are always welcome!! I'd be happy to call ahead anytime if you'd like too! Just let me know! 

You can learn more about our beliefs at Mormon.org, and it is available in many languages. This post is not in anyway affiliated with the church, nor am I am official representative of it. I simply a member of the church who would like to invite you to learn more about us and our beliefs.



IF YOU ARE IN UTAH, Please note: This Sunday is a rare Sunday where they will not be holding regular Sunday meetings. They are dedicating the newly rebuilt Ogden Temple, and will be sharing the temple dedication in place of the regular meetings. You must be a baptized member of the church and age 8 or older to attend. You can learn more about temples HERE. If you would like to attend regular church meetings another week, you are more than welcome to.




UPDATE to add: Why am I posting this on my quilting blog?

My faith is a dear part of my life and makes up everything that I am. Just as quilting is a part of my life, and at times I feel like I am going out on a limb to share a creation that I have spent hours upon hours on making, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has that same special place in my heart. Thinking about what it takes to share the most precious part of who we are with others, I am reminded of this quote by Robert C. Oaks,

"Consider that you are invited to a friend’s house for breakfast. On the table you see a large pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice from which your host fills his glass. But he offers you none. Finally, you ask, “Could I have a glass of orange juice?”

He replies, “Oh, I am sorry. I was afraid you might not like orange juice, and I didn’t want to offend you by offering you something you didn’t desire."

Now, that sounds absurd, but it is not too different from the way we hesitate to offer up something far sweeter than orange juice..."

I do tend to keep my private life private, and not flood my blog with pictures of my sweet children and other avenues of my life. But I love the opportunities we have to learn about and get to know people all over the world, and learn more about their cultures and what makes them special. I hope you won't be offended by my invitation to try something sweeter than orange juice. And if you aren't interested, just ignore it! It is after all just an invitation. :)

Celestial Star QAL: BINDING

Today's Topic: Binding
Assignment: Finish your quilting, square up your quilt, and BIND
On the Blog: Blog about it and link it up using the link up at the end of this post. OR you can also link up photos from Flickr* or Instagram.  

On Instagram: Take a picture and tag it using hashtag #CelestialStarQAL.
 

 

You can pick up a pattern on Craftsy and in my new shop!.

*If you are sharing pictures from Flickr, I started a Celestial Star QAL group, where you can also share your photos, or start up a discussion, ask questions, etc. I don't get on Flickr much anymore, but I'll try my best to keep my eye on it for any activity going on there. I still think Flickr has a pretty good platform for groups, even if the rest of the site has changed.
**If you decide to work faster than my schedule, which is fine, be sure to take pictures along the way so you can come back and enter the different giveaways!

As I started quilting and scouring the internet for tips and tutorials on how to quilt and do things the best way, I had a good list of tutorials that I pulled from for good bindings. I have since found ONE that I love and live by! Cristy said I could share the video on my blog, and so I will. This is her mother, Sharon Schamber, who is AMAZING!!! She does an amazing job sharing her amazing skills on how to create the perfect binding. If you haven't tried glue basting yet, DO IT! Every time I glue baste anything now (which I glue baste everything I possible can) I always think, "this must be what's it's like to sew in heaven." No pins = heaven! Perfect results = heaven! What more can I say?! 

If you haven't seen this video yet, it's a little long, but it's SO worth it. :)

You can purchase the glue tips in Cristy's shop, PurpleDaisiesQuilting.com

Thank you Sharon & Cristy!!

***********

Don't forget to link up your Quilting progress on THIS POST for your chance to win some amazing prizes! See the post for more details.

    

Heather Bailey Bundle of Up Parasol (9 FQ's), your choice of colorway, 

sponsored by I Don't Do Dishes 

&

 Moda Crossweave FQ bundle, 
sponsored by Material Girl Quilts

The giveaway will be open until I pick a winner on Thursday September 18th.

To enter, share a picture of your quilting. You don't have to be finished, but you need to have started. 

************

Share your progress photos and blog posts. How are your Celestial Stars coming along??

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Celestial Star QAL: ALL 12 Blocks

Someone asked to see all my blocks all together, and I have been on a mission to do so!! I have been trying to get a good picture of my quilt and all the blocks since I finished the quilt top. It has not been an easy task, but I think I finally got some decent shots.

So here they are!! I am in love...

 A quick bench shot. It's a large quilt!

They aren't all perfect, but I am pretty darned pleased with them!! ;)

I asked my little boys if they would help me hold it up so I could get a picture of the entire quilt. They are so sweet and did their very best! My little guy just isn't quite tall enough yet, but he is as sweet as can be!! love their little fingers and tops of their heads. <3 br="">


So there are all 12 blocks!!

You can purchase the Celestial Star pattern HERE.

I am planning on compiling an instruction PDF document that will show in detail how I constructed each block: fabric placement, value scheme, cheater cutting templates, etc for all the blocks. It won't be ready until after the QAL is finished probably, as I need to finish my quilt first. So if anyone wants to duplicate any of these blocks, but feels intimidated at all, hopefully this will help out! ;)

(Updated 10/20/14) Until I get the PDF completed, here are some posts that will hopefully help you recreate this quilt, whether you want to make the entire quilt or just one or two blocks:

This post talks about color and value. These are important to pay attention to in order to create a design that pops! Or not pop, if that's not what you are going for. :) It also shows how I used the coloring pages to come up with designs. http://fromblankpages.blogspot.com/2014/07/celestial-star-qal-color-design.html

This post talks about design and shows each of the blocks I created. You should be able to use these pictures for reference, and can transfer them to the coloring pages at the end of the pattern. I also share how I used value for picking fabric.  http://fromblankpages.blogspot.com/2014/07/celestial-star-qal-fabric.html

There is also a post about cutting templates. These make crating certain blocks much much easier!! http://fromblankpages.blogspot.com/2014/07/celestial-star-qal-cutting-fabric.html

How is everyone doing?!! Have you started quilting?? I need to hurry up! The link up and giveaway for your quilting progress ends on Thursday!! (well, the link up will remain open for any late comers, but I'll announce two winners on Thursday!)

Link up your quilting progress on THIS POST.