Star Light Star Bright QAL Top Completed!

Posted on March 17, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Good evening, everyone!

I finished up my quilt top for the Star Light Star Bright QAL hosted by Melissa over at Happy Quilting. A big thanks goes to Melissa for designing such a fun project and her generosity in sharing the pattern with us, week by week!

Although some of my points are not perfect, I continue to improve my piecing skills by working on quilt-alongs and BOMs. These timed projects give me a definite goal, and I love quilting alongside people from all over the world.

To see a complete list of my fabric selections, you can read my original SLSB QAL post. I pieced the top using Aurifil thread, #2000.

My husband assisted with some outdoor photography as we tried to catch the quilt in the fading evening light. I think these pictures don’t do the fabrics justice. You can see my pretty plum tree blooming in the background.

STSB QAL Quilt Top, Outside

SLSB QAL Quilt Top Outside with Cat Inspector

Then, I brought the quilt top indoors and placed in on the floor and took a couple more photos.

SLSB QAL Quilt Top, Indoors

SLSB QAL Quilt Top, Indoors with Cat Inspector

I hope to be able to quilt it and bind it in time for the grand parade of finishers. Right now, I’m leaning towards using one of the dark brown fabrics for the binding.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Star Light Star Bright QAL Block Centers

Posted on February 22, 2014 by thequiltedcat

There was some sunshine streaming in through my sewing room this morning while I finished up my last three block centers for the Star Light Star Bright QAL hosted by Melissa.

My quilt inspector decided this bit of streaming sunshine was the perfect spot to nap, and he happily agreed to pose with one of the block centers:

Tiger with SLSB Block Center

Once I had stitched together the last of my blocks, I placed all nine blocks randomly on a design wall.

Here’s what my QAL looks like so far:

SLSB QAL Block Centers

There is still time to join this QAL so hop on over to Melissa’s blog and check it out!

If you want to know about my fabric selections for this QAL, I posted each fabric and line on my post here.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Star Light Star Bright QAL, Half Square Triangles

Posted on February 17, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Monday!

This weekend, I found time to work on my project for the Star Light Star Bright QAL hosted and designed by Melissa. There is still time to join the fun so pop on over to her blog to check out all the details!

Our assignment this week was to create our half square triangles. I’m making the 9-block baby size quilt so I had quite a few HST’s to sew and trim!

The sewing part went pretty fast as I chain-stitched each grouping. The important part of this step was to keep our groupings separate so we don’t confuse the half square triangles between groups. I labeled each group with a sticky note and only sewed one group at a time.

Next, we trimmed our little HST’s! This part makes me happy to sew all those perfectly square little blocks, but I definitely get a sore left forearm. I cut with my right hand, but seem to hold onto my squaring ruler pretty tightly with my left hand so that the fabric doesn’t wiggle. This seems to lead to soreness the next day when I do lots of trimming.

Here’s a look at my little mountain of trimmed edges:

HST Trimmings

I’ll use these trimmings to make more cat nip presents for my quilt inspectors.

Here’s a look at all my half square triangles, neatly trimmed. I have group 1 spread out on my cutting table next to groups 2 through 9.

Half Square Triangles for Star Light Star Bright QAL

And here’s a look at all my HST’s and flying geese bundled up together in a little tray:

Organizing Tray for Star Light Star Bright QAL

Stay tuned for next week’s post where I will show you my block centers for this QAL.

I also had the opportunity to attend a Downton Abbey tea party hosted by Andover Fabrics on Saturday. I even won a prize – eek! I’ll upload my photos from this wonderful event to an upcoming post so stay tuned!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Star Light Star Bright QAL Fabrics

Posted on January 31, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Friday, everyone!

Melissa over at Happy Quilting has once again designed a great quilt-along for everyone called Star Light Star Bright. This is a weekly QAL with the cutting instructions posted this week.

For this project, I’m going to make the 3 block by 3 block baby quilt size. I found some wonderful Charley Harper fabrics that I’m going to use along with some other bird/fall themed prints that I think will work well together.

Here’s a look at my fabrics before cutting. They looked so pretty that I almost hated to cut them!