Blue Star Mom

 For my modern quilting lecture that debuted last week, I needed an example of alternative grid work. Since my son left for his first overseas deployment, I felt ready to hang a red star banner. This quilt killed two birds with one stone!

"The Service flag is an official banner authorized by the Department of Defense for display by families who have members serving in the Armed Forces during any period of war or hostilities the United States may be engaged in for the duration of such hostilities." You can read more about the Blue Star banner at Blue Star Mothers. Pete is in a relatively safe place, but I do miss him more than when he is in his office in North Carolina. I try really hard not to worry.

I started piecing when I was on retreat in January. My first attempts at wonky 5-pointed stars were horrible!

I turned to a crazy piecing technique that worked much better for me. It creates a positive and negative block at the same time, so I have a stack of white stars on a blue field that might become a flag someday. Only a few of the blue stars were bordered in red. I used some Kona solids and some prints.

The blocks were laid out on Peggy's bed since we didn't have a design wall.

After making a couple more stars, I had to figure out how to fill in the negative space around the blocks. I couldn't just start cutting white fabric and wing it. My brain doesn't work like that. So I drew it all out in my graph paper notebook and came up with a piecing plan. The numbers are finished sizes without seam allowances.

It didn't take long to complete the top.

The quilting was done at home a few days later. I selected a star to echo quilt around. In the photo below, the red lines indicate the sections that are already done. The blue tape marks the line I'm getting ready to quilt. 

This style of straight line machine quilting with a walking foot is really tedious! I was ready to quit after three sides, but I knew I had to see it through and complete all five directions.

Oh, the texture!

I had a Marine Corps print in my stash that I had to use on the back. 

When I showed this quilt to the Clamshell Quilters, a lovely woman presented me with this star to send to Pete. I had read about this project before, and I wanted to cry when she gave this to me. Now I remember why I was saving my worn out flag and didn't give it to the scouts to burn.

Rather than putting his stuff in storage in NC, he brought it all home! I found his gloves in his car and the cover was on his desk. Yes, his dress blues are hanging in the closet.

Modern Blue Star Mom

28" X 39"

Started 1/30/16

Completed 2/3/16

Miscellaneous Crafty Catch Up

In keeping with the end of year catching up, here are some crafty projects I was working on. I'm tired just looking at it all! I honestly don't know how I did it all in two months.

I was really pleased with my craft show set up. Don't look too closely at the prices. I already know they are too low. 

The princess totes went to Abby & Olivia in Denver. The 2 mug mats were commissioned. I like that they are similar, but different. The two pillowcases were for Mollie's new pillow.

 My niece asked for collars and leashes for her girls' doll pets. Lily's dog is wearing the new collar, but Anna wanted to put hers on her new unicorn. It's a good thing I made them adjustable!

I liked the NYB postcards so much, I put them in tow blog posts! I spent one night in front of the TV making origami stars for a small Christmas tree. I need to get my paper folding fix from time to time! The brownie trees were my go-to party contribution. The candy cane bow tie is for my super cool son.

 

Twelve key fobs made from my father's ties were gifted to all of his kids and grandchildren.  Some people cried. Mission accomplished.

In addition to all the crafting and quilting, I did take a few breaks to cheer on my kids. Pete participated in the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps birthday ceremony. He's on the 45 yard line on the left, 6th from the front. (Julia and I watched the ceremony live streaming on line.)

That's Julia, number 11, playing in a rugby tournament that her team won. We also went to her Christmas concert to hear her sweet solo. She has the most beautiful singing voice, but can throw a mean tackle!

 

 There was some beautiful color in the house: birthday roses, pretty poinsettia and anniversary roses. Someone knows my favorite color!

Bits and Pieces

As I was pulling photos for today, I realized I hadn't shown you my mini challenge from the Ninigret Quilters show. We were provided with a fat eighth of the brown print with polka dots. Since I had taken a class with Vanessa Christenson, I was eager to play with her ombre fabrics. I used Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circles to prepare the applique. After a few days of hand work, I went to town with some tiny machine quilting. I used up a full bobbin of 50 wt Aurifil on this 12" square! I added the yellow ric rac under the binding since that was the only color from the print that hadn't been used yet. 

Now on to the random projects...

I'm putting together an English Paper Piecing kit for a friend who had surgery last week. When She's ready for visitors, I'll give her the kit and a lesson.

 

When I was browsing for EPP stuff, I stumbled upon this hexagon starburst block on Stitchery Dickory Dock.  I couldn't resist giving it a try and I absolutely loved the first one (on left). I do not need another EPP project with two others waiting to be finished, but I can't help myself!

I printed and cut enough paper pieces for 22 blocks. They are all laid out on the piano bench until I dig out my tiny baggies. I'm not planning ahead with fabrics. I'll pull scraps for one block at a time and we'll see what happens!

Last weekend I taught a fabric box class for my co-workers and/or their families. It's a small office, but it's a very crafty group! We had a fun morning and everyone did a great job with their boxes.

This ticker tape birthday card was really fun to make! With crazy mom quilts celebrating her 9th Blogversary, Ticker Tape was fresh in my mind. I tacked down the pieces with glue stick and then stitched around in a square spiral.

Why do scrap projects make such a big mess?! Here you can see the stitches on the inside. I kind of like the wonky lines and texture of the perforations. Now I just need to write a message and sign the card.

I've been teaching private lessons to my friend's mom, Sandy. She is making her first quilt from her granddaughter's t-shirts. Yesterday, we laid out all the blocks and she learned how to piece the rows. It was a fun puzzle to put together, and I think we were successful in distributing the colors and sizes.

 

Last one. I quilted an outreach quilt from Ninigret that will be delivered on the 14th. Now I have 6 labels to make and attach before then. I'll print them on my ink jet printer, so it will be a quick job.

 

I need to stop playing with fabric for a few hours and get busy on some computer work. My procrastination became this blog post!

Quilted Star Ornament Tutorial

 I have a quick tutorial for you today for simple fabric Christmas ornaments.

While I was decorating for Christmas, I decided to make a star garland from my old stash of African prints. The stars were so much fun to make, I thought I'd share the process with you. This is a great way to use up fabric and batting scraps.

 You will need some fabric scraps, batting scraps, ribbon for hanging or stringing, glue dots (or hot glue), shapes cut from freezer paper, pinking shears and a sewing machine.

I cut some 4" stars out of freezer paper using my Sizzix machine.  You can make any shape in any size. Press your freezer paper shapes onto a fabric scrap, leaving at least 1/2" between shapes.

Layer a piece of fabric (right side down), then some batting, and the fabric with shapes on top. Pin the layers together.

Using a slightly longer stitch length than normal, stitch around each shape, close to the edge of the freezer paper. (I'm working on the Featherweight because I dropped off the Bernina for service. Vacations are the perfect time to bring machines in for service!)

Overlap your beginning and ending stitches about 1" to lock the stitches, as indicated by the arrows below.

Clip the threads. Cut out the shape with pinking shears, about 1/8 - 1/4" away from the stitching line. I found it easier to see where to cut with the freezer paper still attached. 

Once the shape is cut out, remove the freezer paper.

Aren't they fun? I'm thinking about sewing together the bits and pieces to make scrappy stars.

I was trying to decide how to attach the stars to the ribbon and remembered I have lots of glue dots in my stash leftover from scrapbooking and Girl Scouts. 

The larger dots were perfect for the garland. You can just barely see it through the sheer ribbon at the top of the star.

I used two tiny dots to attach a ribbon for hanging an ornament.

If you don't have any glue dots handy, you can stitch or hot glue the ribbons. If you don't have pinking shears or a pinking blade for your rotary cutter, a straight cut will work just fine.

I'm still tweaking my Africa-theme Christmas mantle. The bows on the carved animals are causing some controversy in the family! Bill spent a year in Liberia when he was a kid. He bought the animals and his parents brought back the wall art made from barbed wire. 

You might not hear from me again for a couple of weeks. Bill and I are leaving soon to meet Julia in Tanzania. I suspect there will be more animals to add to the mantle, and there will certainly be lots of fabric to add to the stash! (Be on the lookout for a fabric giveaway before Christmas!) If I find a decent internet connection, I'll try to blog while we are away.

Baadai! 

(See you later)

Added 12/3/14: When I decorated the tree last night, I found this cute selvedge star. Apparently, I've made these stars before! This one is actually dated 2008. It was made in a quilt as you go style, stitching together the selvedges and quilting through the batting and backing all at once. If that makes no sense, I can clarify after the trip. I just wanted to show you another option for these ornaments.

Bee Blocks

After driving Pete to the airport this morning at zero dark thirty, and then a quick nap, I worked on some bee blocks. The RI Modern Quilt Guild just started our first bee. For the first month, Suzanne chose these adorable Sunshine Star blocks from 42 Quilts. 

When I started clicking around the 42 Quilts blog, I was excited to see all 64 blocks that Jennifer designed for her Modern Monday series. I think I might make a bunch of these to replace the Farmer's Wife blocks I'm really not crazy about. I'm such a rebel!

I'm off to an EQ7 class. Have a great day!

WIP Wednesday

Today is Wednesday, right? Monday holidays always throw me off, and this is just a crazy week. No time to dilly-dally. Let's get to the projects.

Finishes:

Eleven mug mats/thank you gifts were finished yesterday. Assembly line stitching works for me!

 

I realize this is just a top that could use an outside border, but I'm calling it finished. It will be raffled off to quilt show volunteers this weekend, and the president of the guild gave me permission to not quilt it. Thank you, Ellie!

 In progress:
After seeing this article and photo in my newsfeed this morning, I realized I have 2 Quilts of Valor projects to finish. I'm moving them to the top of the list.

I just need to piece the backing of Pete's quilt and it will be off to Pat, my award-winning machine quilter.

I signed up for Schnitzel and Boo's mini quilt swap that will ship in November. I think my partner will like this stack of fabric. A lotta Tula Pink and a little Lotta Jansdotter.

And because I was ordering from Pink Chalk Fabrics, I threw in some extra goodies. The green Tula Pink print is a yummy voile that will become a scarf for me.

Gotta run!