Virginia's Star Quilt . . . Finished . . .

Remember this project? Of course you don't, I hardly remember this project!! The last time I blogged about my Virginia's Star Quilt was February 14th!! (here)

So to refresh your memory, Virginia's Star Quilt is a pattern by Lori Smith for From my heart to your hands Quilt Designs. It's a great pattern that provides detailed instructions for making this quilt in several different sizes.

I got my center star blocks all done then decided I wanted to change the border.

So I added this checkerboard/9 patch border, but ran out of fabric. That's the last time you heard about this quilt.

Luckily for me, a friend had this exact kit at her house and offered her border fabric to me so I could finish my quilt.

So I finished up that black and tan border, stood back and looked at my quilt and thought, "oh no, that's not good." I thought the black and tan blocks overpowered the star blocks, to the point where you didn't really notice the star blocks at all. What a disappointment!

So at this point I'm trying to decide what to do, go back to the border that was with the pattern (maybe that Lori Smith knew best!) or go ahead and add the final border of scrappy half square triangles and hope it all worked out in the end.

I decided to stick with my plan and add the outer border to that black and tan inner border.

And miracle of miracles, somehow those scrappy half square triangles evened things out, somehow they toned down those black and tan squares. What a relief!

This is Lifetime Quilt Number Seventy,

finished at 54" x 66"

and has approximately 1,436 pieces.

I had a few scraps setting on my sewing table when I was all done and thought maybe I could use them for something.

And came up with this little mug rug, it finished at 6" x 6".

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Merrily I Shopped Along . . .

After I wrapped up my two Carrie Nelson classes, sponsored by the Corn Wagon Quilt Company, I had a little time to visit some Salt Lake City quilt shops. So armed with a map, Garman, and list of 15 area quilt shops, I hit the road, my primary goal, to visit as many quilt shops as humanly possible in the course of 24 hours!

But before I could start my shopping spree, I had one little errand to run, to drop off Carrie at the airport, Carrie was heading back home.

So when Carrie asked if I could drop her off at the airport I was happy to do so. Since Carrie didn't mention which airport, the first thing I did was research airports in the Salt Lake City area. There were two, one boring airport with commercial jets coming and going all hours of the day and night, the airport where I picked up Carrie at the beginning of the week, and a municipal airport with rows of biplanes stored under carport type structures in a huge grassy field.

Well that was an easy call, I figured Carrie would prefer to head home in one of these.

I could just picture Carrie riding in the back with the wind blowing her hair, a scarf flying behind her back and Carrie talking to the pilot the whole trip. Well let this be a lesson to you, when someone asks for a ride to the airport, you don't get to pick the airport, THEY DO! Guess I missed that chapter in my Emily Post Etiquette book, luckily for me I was able to get Carrie to the airport of HER choice in plenty of time for her flight.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it, click here for someone else's take on my choice of airports.

I don't know this to be a fact, but I would be surprised to find an area that had more quilt shops in a hundred mile radius than Salt Lake City. In the span of a mere 100 miles I found 15 quilts shops, 15 amazing quilt shops. I was able to visit ten of them. Do you realize that I've never visited more than 10 different quilt shops in an entire year, yet, in the course of 24 hours I looked, shopped, swooned, and walked through 10 quilt shops! I can drive 100 miles any direction from my house and am lucky to hit 2 shops.

All the shops were friendly, encouraged me to take all the pictures I wanted, and even suggested bakeries, restaurants and ice cream parlors for little pick me ups. The raspberry stuffed iced sugar cookie was definitely worth the stop.

So here are a few random pictures that pretty much summed up my amazing day.

Is there anything better than a red and cream churn dash quilt?

Quilter's Haven was a just that, a wonderful quilter's haven.

I ran across new fabric companies, Riley Blake is huge out there, and new pattern designers.

Look at this adorable display of Schnibbles patterns, all pinned to an ironing board.

Material Girls was packed with patterns and fabric,

everything amazingly bright and cheerful.

This pattern is called "The Red Cross Quilt" by Geoff's Mom Pattern Company.

Naturally I like the colors of this quilt, but I was also drawn to those wonky stars.

This quilt shop, Pine Needles, was in a very interesting area called Gardner Village. All sorts of specialty shops are now housed in buildings that were once part of a mill town. I had to cross a covered walking bridge to get to the quilt shop and passed a bakery, candy shop and housewares shop on the way. You could spend all day shopping at Gardner Village.

I have no idea what that fabric is, but I love it, and the dog.

It was easy to pick out Piper's Quilts shop from the street.

And I arrived just as Lynette Anderson started putting on a trunk show.

All her quilts were amazing. I have a whole new appreciation and love for applique projects.

So that's the high points of my day of shopping, and it got me to thinking, if the Salt Lake City area can support that many quilt shops, there must be more quilters per capita in Salt Lake City than any other city in the world, or maybe just the US or maybe just Utah, but for sure, there must be many many quilters out there.

One post left of my vacation, yes, I did make it to Market and the French General shop in LA!

Thanks for stopping by,

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Inspi - red . . . . .

I hope you had a fun and relaxing weekend.

I woke up early Saturday morning with the urge to take every item out of my kitchen cabinets, spread it all over my countertops, then put it all back in, nice and neat. Luckily that urge passed as quickly as it came.

One thing I did do was swap out the quilt that hangs in my living room. I've been meaning to change that quilt for a couple of weeks but I just hate climbing that ladder. I don't like to climb it when I'm home alone, but I also don't want to be messing around on it when my husband is watching, it's all about the timing. (there's just something about someone watching me and saying, "be careful, don't fall" that makes me nervous!)

I was going to go with A Mazing Abundance, but at the very last minute I decided to go with Father's Fancy. I've been thinking about the Infinite Variety of Red and White quilt show and maybe making a tribute quilt, and thought that maybe hanging that quilt would motivate me.

Out of all the great pictures I've seen of the quilt show, this one is my favorite.

So, I was thinking about doing some sort of tribute quilt sometime, but now I have a great reason to not only get going on a tribute quilt but to finish it by the first of September!

The Temecula Quilt Company, in Temecula, California is hosting a Red and White Quilt Challenge in honor of the Red and White Quilt Show.

If you live in the area, your quilt will be displayed in the shop, but if you live far away, like me, you can just send a picture of your finished quilt and still participate!

(This picture is courtesy of the Temecuala Quilt Company)

Click here for all the details. Everyone who enters gets a gift plus there will be a grand prize giveaway.

I'm in! Why don't you join in on the fun!

I'm going with Moda's Bella Solids in Country Red and White for my fabric. At first I was thinking of going with the antique white, but decided it was too yellow. I'm still working on the details of the pattern.

Cooper's getting into the Red & White spirit of things too, every time I put food in his red food bowl he eats it.

I'm guessing Cooper's saying, "please, can I just eat in peace"

Whenever I blog about swapping my living room quit, someone always wants to know how I do it. . . .

All it takes is a very tall ladder.

I enjoyed all your comments about your favorite quilt color. Not surprisingly, red was by far the most popular color. But when the giveaway is for a pattern with a gorgeous red quilt on the cover, I figured I would attract some fans of red.

Blue was the second most popular, that didn't surprise me either, blue is a very popular color. The color that came in third and that was really close to blue was a surprise to me, GREEN!

I have green in a few quilts, not because I like green, I find green hard to match and coordinate, but because the green is just part of a family of fabrics. I have a few green fat quarters but no yardage to speak of.

The next most popular color was brown and autumn colors. I'm with you there, I love fall colors too, I don't have near enough fall colored quilts.

After fall, pink and purple tied. I think everyone should own at least one purple quilt, and I do have one quilt with a lot of purple. The funny thing, the person who said they put purple in almost every quilt thought they should own at least one red quilt. My bizarro world twin!

For as crazy as I am about pink, I'm surprised I don't have any quilts with pink, but Long Tall Sally will fix that.

And now, for the winner of the Scarlett Queen pattern by Carrie Nelson for Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

I agree, this is an amazing pattern, thanks to all 100 of you who left comments or sent an email, I wish I had 100 patterns to give out. (What's up with blogger, I've been having trouble leaving comments on blogs and several folks had trouble leaving comments on this post, hopefully all the kinks got worked out over the weekend. )

And the winner is Pat V from Snohomish Washington who said,

"This is a great quilt! I've been wanting to make something in red and white, as I haven't yet. I don't think I have a favorite color quilt; looking at the ones I've made, they're all very different. This could be due to the fact that I've only been quilting 2 years and am still trying out different styles & techniques. I may be close to finding my voice, though..."

Congratulations Pat!

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I'm Ready for Christmas . . . .

While I was out of town, the final block for the Fat Quarter Shop Kate Spain 2010 Designer Mystery Block of the Month project came. Hurray! I was so happy to be all caught up with blocks one through eleven and ready to wrap up this project. It seems like I've been working on it forever, even if it was only one block a month.

The block, The Final Touch, is designed by Sherri Falls of This and That Patterns.

I thought the pattern company sounded familiar, and when I went to check out her website I discovered that I own a few of her patterns, Wagon Wheels, Just Before Dawn, and Butter Churn. Another funny coincidence, a friend on Monday showed me a quilt she was planning to hand quilt for her Mom, and the pattern was Posie Patch, another Sherri Falls pattern that's a log cabin quilt with adorable applique posies in the setting triangles.

So here it is, Block Twelve - The Final Touch

A perfect name for the last block I think.

I changed the fabric for this block because it used the same fabric that I used on another block that I changed when it came. As a matter of fact, I changed, swapped or tweaked every block but one, the wreath block. And now that it's all done, I wish I would have thought to frame that block with the background fabric so it didn't meet the sashing. I like white space, I added some when I could but I think it could have stood some more.

So here's my final block placement, I think I had those blocks in every possible combination before deciding on this one, the perfect one!

The finishing kit used the red fabric that's also used in the hat, stocking, basket and mitten. I thought that was a little too much red too close to those blocks so I switched to the green.

Plus the green complimented the poinsettia fabric I was going to use for the outer border (not part of the finishing kit).

When I auditioned the green sashing and the poinsettia fabric on my design wall I thought "Eew". A little to wild for me, and even though this quilt is going to live in LA with my daughter, I thought that combination was a little too loud and distracting for her too.

Step One, I toned down the volume on that green by adding a 1/2" strip of the background fabric down the middle of those sashing strips. I stayed with the cornerstones from the finishing kit, which was designed by Brenda Riddle of the Acorn Quilt & Gift Company.

(Speaking of Brenda Riddle and the Acorn Quilt Co, I ordered the pattern Frosted Windowpanes from them, which was the inspiration for the wonderful quilt at the AQS show in Paducah called Fleur de Lis, that I blogged about here, anyway, the Acorn Quilt Co sent a booklet with about 5 or 6 patterns in it as a Thank You gift for buying ONE pattern! How's that for customer service!)

I pretty much went with the outer border designed by Brenda Riddle, except she used the blue snowflake fabric and I went with the red.

Also, the finishing kit finishes at 64" x 78", and the space where this quilt will be hanging is 59 inches wide, so I made my outer border a little narrower.

I thought the pattern in the finishing kit was perfect, a little personality but not so much as to compete with the blocks in the center.

I was so proud to have the quilt all done, put it on my design wall to take that last photo to share with you when I noticed, no . . . surely I didn't . . . I DID, I put that bottom sashing strip on upside down!! UGH!! It's supposed to have two stars in the lower left hand column, not three!!

So here's the conversation I had in my head, "Who cares, it's not like it even matters, it looks OK, it doesn't look unbalanced, really, just leave it, Favorite Daughter will not know the difference, the top fourth of the quilt will probably be on the other side of the rod, no one will even know, just leave it . . ."

You know me, I couldn't leave it. . . .

This if Lifetime Quilt Number 71.

It finished at 57" x 70",

is named, 2011 The Year of Ashley,

and has approximately 772 pieces.

This was my first official block of the month, I signed up for one from another shop once, but the fabric that came was so horrible I never made it, I just tossed the ugly fabric and saved the pattern. Now that it's all said and done, I think I've decided I'm not a mystery block of the month person. I enjoyed getting and making the blocks each month, Kimberly and the folks at the Fat Quarter Shop are very generous with the fabric and the instructions were marvelous, and I thought the patterns were just adorable, but this quilt would look very different if I were making all the blocks at once. You know me and changing up patterns (I think it's a middle child syndrome, wanting to be different) and it's hard to change up patterns when you don't know how it's all gong to come together until the end.

All in all, I think this is a very cute quilt that suits my daughter and her condo perfectly.

I'm hoping to see your finished 2010 DMBOM quilt, be sure to drop me a line when you finish yours!

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Best For Last . . . . .

I've always got a thing going for the color red, particularly red in my quilts. The last 12 quilts that I've finished have red in them, of the 70 or so quilts I've finished half have red or are primarily red.

The Infinite Variety Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts show in New York earlier this year only added to my passion for red quilts.

I recently bought a binder to hold just my red quilt patterns. (Yes I know I can make any pattern a red quilt and any red pattern a different color quilt, but that doesn't stop me from buying patterns specifically with a red quilt on the cover, it's a sickness.)

What else would this binder store?

Even the inside is red!

And how could I pass up this red lined legal pad?

So imagine my excitement, when not only did Carrie have Wild Air and Long Tally Sally quilts for show and tell for the Corn Wagon Quilt Co classes, she also brought this beauty . .

Scarlett Queen by Carrie Nelson for Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. !

The third full size quilt pattern she made for Market. I think it should have been named Thelma Scarlett, it's all me.

I just love the detail in those corners. From looking at the pattern, Carrie's developed a clever, easy and fool proof way to make this quilt come together perfectly.

Here's the same pattern in Jo Morton fabrics, lovely, but I think you know which one is my favorite!

Scarlett Queen is 6 foot square, but can be made smaller or larger. Any style or color of fabric would work for this pattern, a real stash buster.

I've got my Scarlett Queen pattern in that binder, just waiting to make its way to the top of my To Do List.

I also have a spare pattern to give away, and I won't hold it against you if you don't use red fabric to make this quilt.

To win this pattern just leave a comment on this post. I would love to know your favorite quilt color, but any comment will do! I'll announce the winner sometime over the weekend.

Official C n D disclaimer; I purchased the pattern Scarlett Queen, Carrie Nelson did not ask me to blog about this pattern or promote this pattern. If I never blogged about a Carrie Nelson pattern she would not see a difference in pattern sales, she does just fine without any help from me.

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