Starry Stash

I love fabrics with stars on them!  I'm not sure why, but my quilts often have at least one piece of fabric that has stars.  So, I decided to look through my stash to see what star fabrics I could come up with.  Now, my stash is relatively small compared to some, I know.  But I still found a pretty fun selection to look at.  For me, the best part is remembering which quilt I used that fabric in: my husband's quilt of valor, or my son's college quilt, or the one I made for my niece's first baby.

I found a few that I don't remember using in any projects, yet...  That must mean I need to start something new!

Linking up to Sunday Stash at Finding Fifth!

Trying to be random!

I have to admit I'm not very good at being intentionally random, although I love the random posts that  other bloggers write for Thursdays.  I'm more of a "concrete sequential" person if you know what I mean!  As a teacher, you spend your days trying very hard NOT to be random.  When you are, you learn very quickly that your students lose their focus and get out of control.  And that's not good!!

But, here goes:

We have Spring Break coming up this week.  Everyone-students, teachers, and spouses are looking forward to the break.  I'm going to be visiting my mom in Arizona.  It should be summer-y there, which will be wonderful since March has been cold and snowy here in Colorado.  Mom and I are going to dye some silk scarves with men's silk ties that I've been collecting.  I posted about that earlier here.

I finished the March block for the And Sew On Block of the Month at Quiet Play.  It has been fun to practice my paper-piecing skills on these blocks.  I'm still using my seam ripper though!  I really liked this block, with all of its spools.  Can't wait to see what April's block will be.

Spring is slowly coming to Colorado.  By the time we get back from our Spring Break trip, there will probably be daffodils blooming in my garden.  I always enjoy the daffodils - they are such a happy color!

Happy Spring, everyone!

Just Spooling Around

I finished the March block for Quiet Play's And Sew On BOM.  This was not as tricky as last month's but I still had to use my seam ripper!  Oh well.  I am happy with how it turned out.  It was fun to look through my stash for a few little pieces that looked "thread-y!"

I'm linking up with Kristy at Quiet Play.

A mini quilt for my favorite mug

The kids in my class call me Mrs. B.  It's easier for them to spell than my last name.  So, for Christmas one of them gave me this turquoise mug.  I was looking in my collection of 2 1/2 inch squares, and found the perfect set for a granny square mug rug to match the mug.  I bound it in a fun yellow with dots and suns.  Very spring-y and a quick Saturday afternoon project!

Not too random, but a finish!

Last week, I posted about this quilt that I was working on machine quilting.  I finished hand sewing the binding this week, and threw it in the wash.  I love how it came out all crinkly and soft.  That definitely made a big difference in its quilty feel.  My original pictures of the quilting were really bad.  Photographing my quilts is a big learning process for me!  I definitely need to improve those skills.

Adding to my Stash

My stash has grown a lot over the years, mostly just scraps leftover from projects.  I hardly ever buy fabric just for fun. (I know, crazy, right?)  So I decided to change all that, and I had a lot of fun looking at fabric at my LQS, with no projects in mind, just adding to my stash.

Some fun fat quarters in different patterns and colors.

A bag of 6 x 20 scraps, perfect for my Scrappy Trip Round the World quilt!

And some purple florals for a friend in my quilt group whose birthday we'll be celebrating this week.

I might have to do this more often!

Linking up to Sunday Stash at Finding Fifth!

Machine Quilting

I have been trying to learn more machine quilting techniques, but free motion quilting just isn't coming easily to me.  So, instead I've been using my walking foot more.  I made this baby quilt sized quilt from a charm pack of Kansas Troubles, and quilted it using the Orange Peel pattern that I learned from Petit Design Company's 31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting.  In the sashing I quilted long, curved lines.  It's been fun to try something new this week!