Most Productive Weekend Ever.

I got off my butt and decided to bust some stash and finish up some UFOs. I love my stash but it's prettier on a bed than it is on a shelf. And goodness knows my UFOs are prettier on a bed than they are in plastic boxes.

The first thing I did was get my Bear Paw box down (had two done) and finished up the rest. I had the bits cut so mostly it was a matter of just actually doing it. I have to admit that it was so fun to see it coming together. This is a Moda Bakeshop pattern and works up very easily. I made one modification, though. The original pattern involves a jelly roll so the blocks are surrounded by 2.5" strips and corner posts and then sewn together. I had yardage of my background fabric so instead I left the blocks borderless and put 4.5" sashing and blocks between them instead. It looks much the same but it was easier on my brain. And since I'm hand-quilting it I'll appreciate having fewer seam allowances to work around.

Yay! It's so pretty! And when my husband looked at me and said "Now who is this for?" I was able to say "It's for right there on our couch."

I finished the bear paw on Saturday night and then thought rather than go finish up any other UFO I really wanted to start something new. I wanted to do something fast and easy with big blocks. And stars, I wanted stars. So I pulled out my Schnibbles Times Two and looked at Plan C and voila! It was perfect. I've also done a bunch of darker and more "masculine" colors so I wanted this to be light and much more girlie. A quick hunt through the stash and I settled on my cuts from Tanya Whelan's "Darla" collection. Perfect.


What's that? What did you say? Oh, yes. That is, in fact, a 3ft. stuffed T-Rex over on the left. And yes, that's also an inflatable minion from "Despicable Me" in the upper right. The joys of having a three-year-old in the house. (Actually, the inflatable minion is mine and Steve's. We just let Chloe play with it.)

These blocks are ginormous, the flying geese are 4x8 and so it worked up SUPER fast. Just perfect. It needs borders put on still but I'm happy leaving it like this for a while while I decided whether or not I want to use the piano key border listed in the book or get a little more yardage (or some from Delilah) and do a solid border. Thoughts?

When it's done it should be okay to throw over a double bed. I'll take it down to Michelle's (my mom's local quilt shop, they rent time on their long-arm and I LOVE working on it) and give it a nice all-over soft flowy pattern. Plus there's enough fabric left to do some fun pinwheels for a baby quilt if my co-worker turns out to be baking a female in there.

And Steph? Be careful. If you compliment this one it's coming to live at your house. I sincerely doubt Starfish Dude would take kindly to big girly flowers on the bed. :)

Next time we move on to my current insanity, Miss Rosie's "American Pie" pattern and the first time I didn't have a heart attack at the phrase "cut 720 of these." I think this hobby has stolen my brain.