Star Surround Finish

I did it! Yay! My Star Surround quilt top is quilted. And in time for the parade over at Happy Quilting!

This started out as a set of 13 strips of Heaven and Helsinki fabrics, 5" wide by WOF. I won them in a competition held over at Mad About Patchwork sometime last year. It was a bit tight cutting out the squares using these as they were 1/4" too narrow. But I made it work with some fudging clever stitching.

I did some simple straight line quilting on this one to highlight the points of the stars.

Star Surround Front

I tend to prefer a more heavily quilted look. And I have been debating whether I should add some more quilting, but am undecided! The back shows the quilting a bit more clearly. I had enough scraps to make the scrappy binding and used the remaining fabrics on the back.

Star Surround Back

This marks the end of another quilt-a-long run by Melissa at Happy Quilting. She is holding a grand parade of all the finished quilts on Monday 16th September so hop on over and check them out, there will be some amazing quilts!

Quilt Stats:
Fabric: Heaven and Helsinki, Kona Snow
Size: 35.5" x 51" (rather an odd finished size!)
Started: August 2013
Finished: September 2013

Linking up with 

More Letters

We are in month three of the Easy as ABC QAL over at Blossom Heart Quilts and the letters she published were KLMNO. I kind of wish I was making the quilt as it looks so great.

But no, I am making name banners for my 3 children. So I am picking and choosing the letters I make.

I started with the boy's name. I have just redecorated his room and made curtains and a headboard in a green, yellow and blue striped fabric. 

So I pulled out some fabrics that I though went with these and ended up with these four letters. Just need a couple of letters from further down the alphabet and he will be done.

The littlest one is very pink and very girlie so it was easy pulling fabrics for her letters. 

I never realised there were so many Ls in my children's names.

Linking up to

A Lovely Year of Finishes - Sept Goal

September! The start of a new school year and the littlest one has started Kindergarten! It's going to get very quiet around here! I haven't quite decided if that is a good thing or not. I do, however, have an ever increasing list of things that I should now be able to get done given there are no small people around!! But before that list can be tackled we have to get passed the 'gradual entry' phase, so far the school day has only been 2 hours long!


So, I have been busy finishing off my Star Surround quilt top. The deadline for this step is the middle of the month, so I have managed to meet that bit! Yay. 

I decided I had enough fabric to make another 2 blocks. It would have been nice to have had a little bit more fabric to make another column, but I was scrimping on the fabrics as it was! So I have the 16" blocks in a 2 x 3 layout.

The top has been on my design wall for a few days while I contemplated whether it should have a border or not. I didn't really want too much more white space but didn't have enough of the Kona tangerine (to match the outer triangles) to bind it with. So in the end I decided to add a small border so that I can do a scrappy binding.

I am currently piecing together all the leftovers to make the backing and then I can layer it and start quilting. Ha, and there is another decision to make!

Melissa is having a grand parade on September 16th for all those that get it quilted by then! There have been some great looking quilt tops! It should be a fun parade.


Whilst the quilt top sat on the design wall I managed to complete another Dr Who block. I am so far behind on these! Anyway, I give you the sonic screwdriver.

Sonic screwdriver

So, my primary goal for this month is to quilt and bind the Star Surround quilt top ready for the parade! 

If I meet this goal, I should then have the rest of the month to crack on with some Mario blocks (I have 3 left to do) and maybe another Doctor Who block, before the next 2 are revealed!