Pathway Through The Stars and a Craftsy Class

A few months ago my guild, the STLMQG, issued a new challenge called The Ohio Star Challenge. The rules were to Make a Modern Quilt by using the Traditional Block "Ohio Star" and you can read more of the details here. Our meeting is tomorrow but I wanted to post about my quilt(s) today because tomorrow is going to be super busy/long and Sunday I probably won't have the energy to blog about it either.

This is what I came up with and my Dad named it Pathway Through The Stars! I loved how the first one turned out so much that I made a second one!

 

One of the reasons why Saturday is going to be so busy is that our best friend Matt is getting married to his beautiful bride Shannon. Their wedding colors are peacock colors so I pulled these solids to make a quilt for them! This was the second challenge quilt I made and I'm glad I did, because the Ohio Star stands out better using the solids than the prints. BUT I love them both equally and if it wasn't our best friends wedding I might keep this one! :) Love ya'll and can't wait to celebrate God's joining of two awesome people tomorrow!

Here is the back of the quilt and close up of the straight line quilting.

 

The second Pathway Through The Stars uses all prints! I have been hoarding some of these fabrics for YEARS and let me tell ya, it felt good (and a little scary) to cut into them!

I used a new Free Motion Quilting technique to quilt this and it was so fun with gorgeous results.

The awesome Angela Walters has a new class over on Craftsy called Dot to Dot Quilting. In the class she teaches how to FMQ these simple line designs with stunning outcomes! The class was really informative and fun. I found these designs to be simple and kinda relaxing! I also mixed in some other FMQ designs like pebbles and swirls.  I HIGHLY recommend this class and thanks Angela for another fun one! (Plus, it's on sale right now! So, hop on over and check it out!)

Below are photos of the quilting:

This will be a new pattern soon....let me get through this weekend first! I hope ya'll like it and thanks for the awesome challenge STLMQG!

Caught up and a pouch!

A bunch of us girls get together after the STLMQG meetings and have a little Bee going on.  I love this group of girls and have such a fun time with ya'll!  They are some amazing quilters and you should check out their blogs!  I love you ladies!

 This is the last month to wrap up the year and then we will start up again in the fall.  I've been a little behind on my blocks after Jared was born and this week I FINALLY got caught up!! Whoop whoop! 

First up, there are Cara's Circle of Geese Blocks!! Check out her blog, because she's got a great tutorial over there on these bad boys!  They were super fun, and I totally forgot how much I like to paper piece!

Next, we have Jessica's blocks.  She LOVES pleats of all kind and asked that we make two improv blocks that included some sort of pleat.  She provided the solids and we added the colorful scraps!  I hope you like them Jess!!

Then, there is a block for Lynne.  She provided all of these fabrics and asked that we make one giant block.  She is making a quilt for a friend and I'm not sure if I can mention it on here because I believe it's a surprise.

Lastly for the Bee blocks, Mary Claire came up with this awesome block and it was really fun to make.  She provided all the FMF fabrics and we made one giant (I believe 20") block.  Hope ya like it MC!

Also, I whipped up this cute pouch today for a graduation party we're going to this weekend.  My husband is a high school teacher, so needless to say we get invited to lots of parties.  Lucky for me, my sister-in-law is best friends with this girl's sister, so I was able to sneakily find out her favorite colors!  This park slope fabric I had was exactly what her favorite colors are, so I hope she likes it!

By the way this is my Cathedral Windows Pouch tutorial. It comes together pretty fast; I was able to assemble it during Jared's naptime today. 

Speaking of which, my little man is teething and not taking as good of naps anymore and just becoming a little fussy.  My poor baby!  We have teething tablets and gel teethers which help some.  Do ya'll have any suggestions for this first time Mama to help his pain?  Thanks and have a great weekend!!

STLMQG Pouch Swap

Tomorrow is my STLMQG meeting and I am participating in a secret pouch swap! Everyone that wanted to participate put their name and info into a pouch and we all drew names for our secret partners!  How fun?!? Here is what I came up with...I hope my partner likes it!

I did a little smocking in the main fabric and totally fell in love with it!  I wouldn't go smocking an entire shirt or dress or anything, but this little pouch was fun!  It was relaxing to do some hand work, I wish I had more time to do so! The top fabric is Amy Butler Soul Blossoms and the bottom is a Moda fabric (can't remember what line).  I just came up with the pouch shape myself, I free handed the shape and was please with how it turned out!

Close up of smocking

Inside peek

Close up of the zipper!

If you're in the St. Louis area, come by our meeting tomorrow!  Our meetings are aweomse and inspiring and I guarantee you'll have a good time! Meeting info is HERE.

Thank You!

HUGE SURPRISE AND THANK YOU!!

This past Saturday was my annual STLMQG meeting!  I love this guild, it's so much fun and everyone is awesome! If you live in the St. Louis area and love to quilt and sew, or you're interested in learning please come!  Find out all the info on the STLMQG Blog!

Anywho...there are 9 of us girls that go out to eat for lunch after every meeting and this month (which would have been last month if I wouldn't have given birth on the day of our meeting) they gave Jared a baby shower!  Which was probably more fun this month anyway because then he actually got to be there! How sweet is that? To my surprise, they gave Jared this AMAZING quilt!  I was soooo shocked! It is a double sided Swoon quilt and it's gorgeous!! Thank you so much Cara, Kristy, Mary Claire, Grace, Lynne, JuliAnn, Laura and Jessica, WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!

Look at how GREAT it looks in his nursery!  I can't stop looking at it!  Thanks so much, ya'll are beyond amazing and talented!



Habitat Challenge

The wonderful people at FreeSpirit fabrics sent out a challenge to all the modern quilt guilds willing to participate.  They gave us 6 fat 1/8's of Jay McCarroll's Habitat fabric line and only using Habitat and solid fabrics we had to come up with a quilt!  I plan on making an argyle quilt with Dr. Seuss fabric for my little boy's room and decided to test out my pattern with this quilt!  Here is what I came up with and I really love how this quilt turned out and can't wait to make one for my little boy!!  Pattern will also be available soon!

If you want to see what other people came up with....check out the Flickr Group dedicated to the challenge!  It's amazing what different things people did with this fabric!

Bee Blocks and Baby!

9 of us in my guild, STLMQG, meet every month and swap bee blocks!! 

July/August was Kristy's month and here are her two blocks I made.

August/September is JuliAnn's month and here are her two blocks I made.

 September/October is MY month and here are the two sample blocks that I made!  Yes, I cut into my Tula Pink Neptune stash...EEEEKKK!!  But it felt so good and I can't wait to make a quilt with everyone's blocks!



Here are a couple shots of my growing belly!  I'm 20 weeks this week but I took these pictures last week when I was at 19 weeks!!  My tummy definitely is popping out a lot more! :)  LOVE IT!

On Monday I will be at 21 weeks!  So exciting!  This little boy is going to be so spoiled (at least with quilts anyway)!!



Rip Rip Rip Challenge

Two meetings ago at the STLMQG we were presented with the Rip, Rip, Rip Challenge.

Here were the official rules: You must make something (quilt, table runner, market bag, etc) that is bigger then a placement using 4 of the 5 fabrics that you received during the Ripping game. You can add any additional fabrics that you choose, just make sure that each of the 4 fabrics are clearly represented somewhere in the project. You may be asked to point them out, so be prepared. The finished item must be brought to the August 13th meeting, in order for you to be eligible for any prizes.

Think creatively and have fun!!

This was a super fun challenge and here is what I came up with!  I started with least lovely fabrics:

I brought the dots on the left and came home with the rest!

Here is what I came up with:

A cathedral windows pillow!!!  I used all 5 of the fabrics I received plus I added the white solid to tone it down a bit and really love how this pillow turned out!!  What do ya'll think? 

Here is the back of the pillow!!

Man, does it feel good to be sewing again!!! YEAH!!



Just One Star

I'm sure we all know someone who has served our country! Moda is inviting everyone to help them make 100 quilts in 100 days for our soldiers!!  All you have to do is make one (or more) star blocks and send it to them in Dallas!!  All details are here.  If you're a member of the STLMQG and bring your star or stars to the meeting in April, I will be giving away a SunFlower Quilts pattern!!  Please help out and send what you can!! Thanks!

STLMQG

What a BUSY week!!  Today I'm featured over on the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild Blog!!  Go check it out and if you live in the STL area...come to our next meeting...they are AWESOME!!

What the Blog??

After teaching some sewing classes this past weekend and just being in the shop, I got a lot of questions about the whole blog world and world of Flickr.  This past January I did a presentation at the STLMQG meeting on this exact topic, so I thought I'd share it with all of you lovely people!  Here is a LINK to my PowerPoint presentation!  I don't claim to know everything...these are just a few first steps to start a blog and Flickr account!! Hope this helps!  I will also make this PowerPoint a tab on the top of my blog so you can find it easier! 

And just because I can't do a post without a photo...here are my nephews at the shop while we were in Houston!! 

Pincushion swap & Cathedral Windows

Happy Valentine's Day!! 

 I thought I'd share a few photos with ya'll before I head to Houston!!  I'm leaving for Houston in the morning with my sister-in-law Rachel and my two nephews Xavier and Jordan! I cannot wait!!  If you're in the Houston area and want to learn how to do cathedral windows, I'm teaching a class on Saturday and there are a couple spots left!  All the info is HERE.  I just made a couple more samples today so I thought I'd share it with you!

This past Saturday was the February meeting for the STLMQG.  As you know from my previous posts, we had a pincushion swap! 

Here is a photo of all the lovely pincushions everyone made!

This is the one I got and I love it!! The lovely and talented Mary Claire made it!  Definitely check out her blog, she's awesome!