WIP Wednesday - Aurifil BOM's

It's Wednesday already!  Why do the weeks go by so fast?

Today I should be sandwiching and basting my Giant Starburst quilt but instead I'm working on the Aurifil Thread BOM blocks.  I've printed the instructions out for all three months so far this year but I haven't had a chance to make any of them.
  

If you aren't familiar with the Aurifil BOM, here is the link to January's block.  
You can sign up for the newsletter and they will email each months Designer block to you.  If you complete the block and post your picture to their flicker page, you can be chosen to win an Aurifil thread prize each month.  YAY!

This above block is the March block.  I have the fabric cut out for my January and March blocks.  I'm out of Kona White yardage and had to order more so I couldn't cut out the February block.  Can you believe I ran out of white?  But at least I caught the tail end of the Robert Kaufman sale that fabric.com had this past weekend.

 I fussy cut these little bunny's for my center block.  Sweet huh? 

And here is the March finished block!  Still working on January.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog!
**Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced**

Finish it up Friday - Saturday Sampler BOM's

I've mentioned the Saturday Sampler before on my blog.  It's a neat thing one of my local quilt shops does to showcase new products for their customers.  They also have show and tell (of course!) and you can participate in a BOM if you would like.  This year she had to have a sign up list with a limited number of spaces because she can only fit about 120 or so chairs into the classroom.  It is packed every time.  Pretty good huh? 

So, my finish for today is my 12 quilt blocks for 2013 Saturday Sampler BOM.  Yes, I really did just finish them.  I held on to December's block all this time because I just didn't have time before to do it.  Plus one of the blocks that I had done - and I wrote a tutorial for here (the Honey Bee Block) - I redid it because I didn't like the dark red fabric.  It was just too dark for me.

 The blue, yellow and white block in the lower left corner is my redone Honey Bee Block.  These fabrics are all batiks with a white muslin background.

Do any of these blocks stand out to you?  The one in the top left corner of this last picture stands out to me.  The block is called Spinner but I'm not crazy about that fabric.  Looking at all the blocks together, I realize that there are only about 3 where I used the fabric that was given to us for the block and didn't substitute my own.  The Spinner is one of them but I may end up redoing it.  

I have one more finish.  My January 2014 Saturday Sampler BOM.  The Barbara Fritchie Star.

We were given the pink floral fabric and muslin for the background but I chose to use this Allison Glass text print as my background fabric for all of my blocks for this year.  I'm really proud of how well this block turned out.
**Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation**

Modern Quilting

Modern Quilting - the new quilting movement.

I've read a lot of magazine articles, blog posts, etc. lately about modern quilting and all the different types of modern quilting.  There is much debate over what modern quilting means and its subcategories.

I'm not going to go into all of that.  I'm just going to say that the modern quilting movement is what got me interested in quilting.  I've been around quilting all my life, my mother quilted for a time.  My first quilting project ever was a Christmas tree skirt that I made 20ish years ago when my husband and I got married.  I hand cut (with scissors) all the pieces and then hand sewed and hand quilted it.   Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE hand sewing?  Well, I do.  I can take it in small doses and I mean very small.  But more than I few stitches makes me frustrated and angry.  I'm still surprised that I ever finished that tree skirt.

But I'm absolutely in love with modern quilting.  The colorful fabrics, modern designs, geometric shapes, the rule of "there are no rules".  I read an article recently stating that you should learn the traditional way of quilting and then do what you want.  I love that!

Don't get me wrong.  I love old quilts and old quilt patterns and I have a great respect for all quilters because I know how much love and time they put into their quilts.  Especially hand sewn ones - yikes!

The magazine shown above is one of my favorite quilting magazines.  Here is my very favorite:

It has lots of pointers for beginners and really great articles.

And now for some quilt blocks. 
I have been remiss in showing my quilt blocks for the BOM's I'm doing so I thought I'd just show them in big lumps instead of one each month.

Here are my blocks for the Lucky Stars paper piecing online BOM.  These are for January - April and the practice block.  I haven't completed the May or June blocks yet.

 My favorite.  I'd like to make a mini quilt with this one.

This was the practice block.  It looks like a ninja star to me and is my second favorite so far.

I'm about half way through quilting the quilt from the last blog post and I'll get pics up asap.

Hope you're enjoying the warm summer weather.
PS - the birds left their nest.

February Lucky Stars BOM and Saturday Sampler Block

I know it's already March so I'm a bit behind posting pics of my Lucky Star BOM for February.  I did get them posted to the Flicker group though, so yay!

 

 

For February, I made 2 blocks.  One with the 6 inch template and one with the 12 inch.  I used the tye-dyed fabrics that I bought at the Houston Quilt Festival for the 12 inch block.  I'm slowly using this fabric on blocks that I think are really cool with the hopes that they will all "go together" at some point so that I can make my son a cool quilt/wall hanging for his room.  But we'll see what happens.

 

The six inch block is made with Moda's Eat Your Fruits and Veggies fabric just as January's block was.  I think this will make a really cool and bright quilt when all the blocks are finished.

Ok.  Now I'm going to show you my February block for the Saturday Sampler I'm doing with my LQS.  It's called Spinner and it's suppose to look like a pinwheel.  It's an old pattern that's been around forever and I did an absolutely perfect job cutting out each piece.   It came together perfectly and I was so proud of my block.   I think it's the most exact cutting job I've ever done.  I'm using bright Batik fabrics with a white background.

BUT, once I finished the block and went to take the picture, I looked through the camera lens and that's when I saw it.  A swastika.  When you look at it in person, it looks like a pinwheel but through the camera, it looks like a swastika. 
I was so upset.  And, I was also afraid to post a pic because I don't want to get hate mail about it or anything.  I think if the color palette were different, it would look different but instead the batiks are very similar in color.

 

What do you think?  Am I just imagining things?  I mean this pattern has been around forever so you would think someone else would have noticed it by now.  Please tell me I'm nuts.
And don't send me hate mail.

How are my works in progress going?

It's a semi warm (68 degrees) and rainy day here today.  Perfect sewing weather or napping weather.  I'm trying really hard to stay awake though.

I've been trying to spend some time working on items for my etsy shop.  In particular, eye pillows.  They sell really well this time of year and all year long really.  I spent 2 days cutting 60 rectangles.

 

This is about half of the stack.  I've already started listing them in my shop.

I've also been working on some of my WIP's.

I finished my January block for the Lucky Stars BOM.  I decided to make the 6 inch squares because I wanted to use a charm pack that I already had.  It's Eat Your Fruits and Veggies from Moda. 

 I like the way it turned out.  Although, I did make a mistake which I didn't even notice until I started taking pictures of it.  Can you see it? 
I meant to alternate the star points of the blue fabric so that the cherry fabric was on opposite points but somehow it didn't turn out that way.  And I was being really careful too.  Oh well.

 

I've gotten all my half square triangles made for my Saturday Sampler BOM.  I just need to finish trimming them and sew them into the square.

And finally, this is how far I've gotten on my paper pieced pillow.

I've got a white border going on but it's not big enough.  I need it to fit a 24x24 inch pillow form and I think it's about 18x18 now.  So, I ordered some solid green fabric and also one of the damask prints that's in the pillow.  I think I'm going to make a border with the green and then use the damask for the back.  Also, I'm thinking about doing a cording but I'm not sure.  I'll keep you posted.

Hope everyone is having a great week!