Christmas Quilt Finish and OBW Started

I found some spare time this holiday weekend to put my One Block Wonder blocks up on my design wall.  After many hours of rearranging them, I finally forced myself to stop and say DONE!

Every time I thought I was finished, I would find just one more block to change.  Then that move would lead to another, and another, and I realized this could go on forever.

So now I'm really finished, because I took them down in organized piles and I'm ready to sew them together.  No turning back now.  

  

There will probably be some borders added at some point, but for now I'm going to focus on sewing this section, hopefully at the quilt retreat I'm going to later this month.

While I was laying out the design, I asked myself what I'm going to do with this quilt.  I have to honestly say, I don't know.

Do I need it?  No...

Do I have a place for it?  No...

I make quilts because they make me happy.

I also finished the Christmas Star quilt this weekend.  I really love how this one turned out.  I quilted fairly tight swirls on my George sit-down machine, using pink SoFine #50 thread, which gave just the right amount of contrast against the red fabric.

Christmas Star Quilt

I finished up some other projects in the last couple of weeks that I hope to be able to share with you soon - a Memorial quilt from clothing and an art quilt that I'm entering into a juried show.  I'll share that one here once I hear if it's been accepted.

In the meantime, I'm back working on my list of Christmas quilts.  I spent Saturday night pin-basting this Christmas Star quilt...

...then I stitched all around the perimeter with my Bernina to stabilize the edge.  After all, I spent all that time pin-basting to get everything flat and straight, it just makes sense to lock down those edges now before I start quilting.  Not everyone does this, but it works for me.

I'm now just a little over half-done with the quilting on my George sit-down longarm.  I chose pink SoFine #50 thread, and I'm doing an all-over "spiral swirl thingie".  I really like how it's turning out so far.  Maybe I'll have a finished picture for you next week.

Christmas Star Quilt - Top Assembled

I put all the blocks for the Christmas Star Quilt on my design wall this week.

Once I was happy with the arrangement, I sewed them all together.

It will be a while before I quilt this one, because the grandkids will all be here for much of the next week, so there won't be much sewing going on in the Cotton Cellar unless it involves the kiddos.  And I need to order thread before I can quilt it anyway.  Yes, I have lots of thread, but not pink...  That's right!  PINK!  for a Christmas Quilt?

Oh, and I just realized, I don't have a backing fabric yet!  Guess I need to go shopping...

Progress!

It's been a busy week!  I finished the 4" Christmas Star blocks (all 68 of them) in a few long sewing sessions.  Now all the blocks for this quilt are finished, and I hope to start assembling them into a quilt top soon.

 Aren't these little guys just the cutest?

I would have had the assemby started already, but I got side-tracked...  I'm trying to decide how I want to quilt this one...

,,, the wheels are turning and I can't wait to start quilting this one on George.

Check back next week to see what I come up with.

Christmas Star Quilt

Yes, I know it's only May.  I have a few Christmas quilts on my to-do list, so I'm getting an early start.

This quilt was published on-line as a quilt-along called Oh My Stars! by Thought & Found.  It's perfect for the fabrics I have to work with (from my daughter).

The quilt-along calls for many different types of star blocks, in three different sizes.  I'm sticking with the three different size blocks and the original layout, but decided to make them all Sawtooth Star blocks.  Keeps it simpler and works better with the amount of fabric I have on hand.

I finished the 12" stars and the 8" stars at a retreat this past winter and now I'm working on the 4" stars.

The flying geese units for these 4" star blocks finish at 1" x 2" and I have MANY of them to trim.  My little Quilt In A Day Flying Geese ruler works great for this, but tends to slip.  I saw this trick on Pinterest and it works great!  Just put a little Nexcare Flexible Clear First Aid tape on the back of the ruler.  No more slipping!!!  Yay!