Made It: A Quilt for Mom

Well, blogging everyday hasn't been a thing, but I have a good reason for it... Last week I traveled to sunny St. George, UT to visit my sisters and my mom! It was such a wonderful trip!!! I missed out on the crazy blizzard here in North Dakota - don't worry, I didn't cry about it. lol. And my husband was absolutely amazing with the kids while I was away! I told him that they all seemed to do better without me. But he adamantly reassured me that they prefer having me home. ;) haha. 

We stayed at my sisters house, and I just love her family! Her kids are getting so big! (as is always the case when you don't see them often enough). I was also able to visit with some of our very good friends from when we lived in Iowa, as well as some of our best friends (that I served with while on my mission) and Neil got to know after we got married. My heart was so full!! I don't think anything beats being with the people you love! Although eating at my favorite restaurants and getting out and being able to hike around was also very refreshing and refueling for my soul!

I bought my tickets to fly out to Utah a few months ago, and in the meantime my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and moved in with my sister. When I realized that I would get to see her while I was there I knew I needed to make her a quilt!!! This was 2 weeks before I left... so from planning and designing what I would make, paper piecing 12 blocks, completing the quilt top, basting, quilting, and sewing on the binding, it was definitely a miracle that I was able to do all of that in such a short amount of time! (I attached the binding before I left and was going to sew it on the rest of the way while I was there. I got it half way finished on the flight out there, and then I didn't pick it up at all while I was there - so I brought it back home with me. duh! I did show her, but I didn't want to leave it unfinished.... now it is completely finished, so now I need to mail it out to her. good grief. lol. my husband just rolled his eyes at me when he saw it still in my bag.) 

Anyway, here it is...

I used my Taurus pattern. For the outside edges I pieced all the outer sections as single white pieces. It's hard to tell in the photo, but I have a darker and lighter grey that twists between the blocks going down the quilt.

When I think of my mom I instantly think of red, orange and yellow. Not my usual color palette, but I'm happy with how it turned out!

This was my first idea, but the more I looked at it, the less I liked it... though I do still actually like it a lot. I don't know if the border of the image shows up, but this design would have simply gone down the left third of the quilt (not right on the edge, but not centered).

Maybe I'll make it with this layout another day.

My mom started her chemo on Monday, so please keep her in your prayers if you will!

Starry Skyline Quilt

One more super quick post! This is the last finish I have for the 2nd Quarter of the FAL (my list) with Adrianne of On The Windy Side. I'd love to have nice photos to share, but I know I'll end up missing the deadline if I wait for that to happen.

This is my Halloween Quilt using my Starry Skyline pattern. I pieced the top in 4 days! Because I wanted it to be finished and be able to use it for Halloween last year... and then it just sat there for months. lol. oops.

Anyway, I spent lots of hours quilting it, finished the binding last night. I really love how it turned out!! I can't wait for fall to use it! Though we did actually use it last night, and it was nice. :)

Tommy's Quilt

Sorry for the quick repeat. I need to have a separate link to link up for the Finish-Along, so here is another picture of Tommy's quilt, but you can read about it HERE.

Here's my original list of projects.

June 2015 Finishes

 Since I'll be posting lots of finishes this week, this blog post is also a part of A Week of Finishes, an event I put together in 2013, and decided to revisit again. If you have any recent finishes you'd like to link up, grab a button and please do! (you can share blog posts, flickr photos, or IG photos.) I love to see what other people have been making!

June was a fun month for finishes! I finished a lot of Wip's and that is SUCH a great feeling!!!

The week after school got out we went on vacation to Utah to visit my sister who was visiting from Hawaii. It was a great week, and a great excuse to hurry and finish a few things before we left.

First up are two pairs of capris I had made in May, and had actually been wearing, even though they still needed elastic. Yep, my belly was big enough to hold them up on their own, though after a while the knit would stretch, and while that was not a problem being at home, I figured elastic would be a nice addition. ;)


Meet my almost-37-weeks-pregnant I-just-woke-up haven't-gotten-ready self: ;p

I have to laugh at this photo, and yes, I purposly left that finger there. My oldest took some pictures for me, and then my hubby came out to take *better* pictures to put on my blog. Well, every single picture he took had his finger in it! lol! I love him!! 

And my second pair:

This guy wanted to hang out with me for this picture, and I had to pick this photo of course. This is how I always carry him. He is definitely my most cuddly/attached kiddo! I love that he's always near me. :) Though I think he's REALLY going to miss this baby bump when it's gone!!! He fits perfectly sitting on top of it and laying on my shoulder. I think it's probably really comfortable for both of us. Anyway, I just wanted to document this too since I got a picture of it. :)

I found both of these knits at Joann's, which I never see knits that I like there. I don't really know what to wear them with though. Prints on clothes is a new thing for me, so sometimes I definitely don't match - as my maternity attire is limited, or I'm in a black or white shirt. Whatever. They are super comfy! and cool. And I'll be able to wear them as non-maternity as well, which is always nice.



The last time we went to Utah for a summer trip was about 2 years ago. While we were there my brother gave me one of his quilts to repair for him. I love the story of this quilt, and I LOVE that I was able to add a little bit of myself to it.

When my brother was young, he helped make this quilt with my grandma, (and my mom and sister, I think). Then at a family reunion, or some family get together, it was raffled off. Well, my mom bought tickets for all of her kids, and my brother won it! Apparently my mom's aunt was really upset that a little boy won it as she really wanted it. Ha! Obviously I don't know the story well enough, but still, I think it's awesome.

It has been his family's favorite quilt and it definitely showed! There were a few huge holes, and all around the edges was bare and falling apart. I also thought it was interesting that it was always the green fabrics, and a few blue fabrics, that had the most wear on them.

Anyway, I patched the holes from underneath, adding batting and a layer of fabric. Then pulled the original fabric over that so that it would have as much original fabric as possible. Then I added a binding around the edge to cover any wear, as well as help prevent any more.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to get a better photo of the finished quilt. Maybe I'll see if he'll send me one. Until then, here it is. I think the scrappy Cotton + Steel binding goes so perfectly well with the patchwork quilt. The prints are perfectly vintage, and I like that making it scrappy didn't add a frame to the quilt, since it didn't have one originally. :)



Other finishes: Teacher gifts! I had started these pencil mug rugs months and months ago and finished them up. I just love these so much! Hunter had two amazing teachers this year, and I am so grateful for all their efforts to help him! His year and progress was 100 times better than what he experienced in Florida. That was a rough year, so as his mom, I am so grateful for people who care about him and help him!!!

I had better photos, but iPhoto has been acting weird and it won't show me a bunch of my photos. :( Luckily they are only the ones from my phone, so I think I have them all backed up somewhere... I just need to find them. :)

These mug rugs are another project from my 2nd Quarter Finish-Along list with Adrianne of On The Windy Side. So I will be linking them up over there.



On our road trip I finished up my Simple Celestial mini! All the handstitching was perfect for the long car ride! I finished all of it up except two sections, because the colors I had weren't quite perfect, so I finished those after we got home. But now it hangs next to my computer and I am SO in love with it!! I wish I had time to make ALL the quilts, because this would be a fun one to have in a large quilt!

 And just in the last minute, like literally the night of the 30th, I finished stitching down the binding on Tommy's quilt. I made the first block over two years ago. And that was all until earlier this year. Now it's finished!! Tommy loves it and he's SO excited to use it! But I need to do a photo shoot with it first, so I'm making him wait. ;) He's pretty patient about it, so that's nice. :)

This quilt is another project from my 2nd Quarter Finish-Along list with Adrianne of On The Windy Side. So I will be linking this up over there too! Wahoo! That's four things off my list so far! (and I actually finished another one last night!)




Alright! That's it for catching up with all my finishes! It was a good week! I'll share my last finish for the FAL too, so I can link it up. Can I just tell you how great it feels to finish something!! But I also must admit that it is also very enabling to start new projects, which I have definitely done! ;)

<center> <br /> <br /> <a href="http://fromblankpages.blogspot.com/p/a-week-of-finishes.html" target="_blank"><img alt="from blank pages..."  src="http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo253/dbByDesign/Blog%20Buttons/from%20blank%20pages/A-Week-of-Finishes_zps3c8beb03.jpg"  width="150" /></a></center> <br /> <br />

If you want to share any finishes you've had for the year, feel free to link them up below! :) Thanks for everyone who has linked up! It's fun to see your projects! I'll keep the linky open if you want to keep sharing!

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Star Gazing Baby Quilt and More Fab Blocks!

I decided on Saturday night that I am going to make my baby's baby quilt out of these Star Gazing blocks! Here's the layout I came up with:

 The larger blocks will be 18" blocks, and the strip is 9 - 6" blocks.

 and I think that my Erin McMorris collection will be perfect for it!

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.

A Call for Testers

If you are on Instagram, you probably already saw this, but I wanted to ask any of you bloggers out there who aren't on IG, if you wanted to help out too. I am SO close to finishing my next quilt pattern! Giving myself an obligation to finish it will definitely give me that extra oomph I need to get it done. SO... my goal is to send it out to testers by this weekend.

Pattern name: Ribbon Candy

Would you like to pattern test it for me??

I shared my finished baby quilt size top for the first time at the Central Florida Modern Quilt Guild meeting last night. (I like to keep my patterns a little bit of a surprise until the release date. makes it a little more fun I think!)


If you would like to test it for me, leave a comment with your email. If you decide you hate it, or life happens and can't complete it, I totally understand. But please be honest in your commitment and don't sign up knowing you won't be able to complete it. I ask that you have a finished quilt top (doesn't have to be a finished quilt, but finished is better) by the end of February. (it's a fast pattern. The baby size can easily be finished in a few hours.) I will also organize a blog hop when the pattern is released, just like I did with my Grandma's Lawn Chair pattern, lots of pattern giveaways included! ;) Also, I will have specific questions I'd like to get feedback on. Pattern testing = I want all the feedback you can give me! The good and the ugly. I can take it.


It's a very quick pattern and jelly roll friendly. The pattern is for three sizes: baby, crib, and lap. It includes templates as well as instructions for not using templates. There are lots of diagrams and instructions. And instructions for lots of variations, to make the process as smooth as possible for however you want to make it! :) I am really excited to get this finished, and will be making myself a lap size quilt with my stack of Anna Maria Horner's True Colors that I recently purchased. :) (thank you #thegreatfabricdestash and everyone who helped me destash, errrr, trade out my stash.)