Finally a Finish!

Just finished the binding on Andreas's Stars. Although this quilt is a little smaller than my usual size and 9 out of 12 blocks were already made~it stills feels like it took a looong time to finish.

The Popcorn quilting.

A Slow Go...

...of it. I've been working on the binding of the Stars Sampler UFO but not much progress has been made. Just one side has been sewn back. Hopefully, tonight I will be able to finish after supper. :) and in time to count it out of the stash for this week! Thank Goodness for deadlines~even self imposed ones. Hope you have a fun day today in whatever you choose to do. :)

WIP Wednesday...

...just in the nick of time!

This afternoon I quilted the Stars UFO. I was trying on a few different names such as Pizza Box Stars, Stars Sampler, Stars UFO or Andreas' Stars. I'm not too thrilled with the names yet. I'm thinking the right name will popped into my head and I'll say, 'Yes! That's it!'

Any ideas?

Quilted with the Popcorn panto from Willow Leaf Studio.

A Peek into my Mind

A Very Scary Place, Indeed!

Amy asked about the quilts I have been making centered around the Milwaukee Admirals' players. Let me try and answer her question here...

Last summer while blog hopping I found Margaret's Hope Chest. Carin and Carol's ministry to prison inmates' children struck a cord with me, so I decided to make a couple quilts to donate last fall. While reading their blog, they mentioned that boy quilts were needed. So...I have about 3 or 4 *go to* patterns that I make for donation. Those are the ones I donated last fall. While emailing with Carol, I asked what type of quilts they were looking for. Her reply was *any and all* would be very appreciated but boyish quilts are always in short supply.

At approximately the same time (October 2010), the family was at the Milwaukee Admirals hockey game where the players were wearing their *Hunt For Pink October* auction jerseys. DD and I were joking that they probably didn't really like the pink and wondered what colors they like. Now my DH and DS are pretty tired of me asking them quilting questions all the time~not really~just seems that way to them.

Sooooo...I thought where would I be able to poll a large group of guys, find out their color preferences and make donation quilts based on the guys' answers?!

See where I'm heading here?

The Admirals are a very family and fan oriented team. Every few games, they have an Autograph Corner (after the game) where fans are able to *meet and greet* two players. It is mostly at these *meet and greet*s that DD and I received players' autographs and I asked about color preferences. I kept a list and have been looking for patterns to go along with color choices of the Milwaukee Admirals. Since most of the front office I deal with is also male, I included those guys on my list, too. Last night I even asked the mascot, Roscoe what colors he liked. :)

The two players pictured here are Jeremy Smith (no hat) and Aaron Johnson (with the hat). BTW, they both like black, blue and white together. Most of the guys said this color combination as they are the colors of the Admirals' uniforms. :)

I wanted to make boy friendly donation quilts so I asked the *boys* about colors they liked. The most popular combination was black, blue and white, followed by black and blue, then green and blue, blue and orange then blue only. A few were very original and surprised me. One like red and black, another green and orange, another black and grey. Andreas was predictable. His colors are blue and yellow, the colors of the Swedish flag, his home. Another surprise was that no one liked red and white as a combination. We have many players who are native Canadians and one very famous (in the the hockey world) University of Wisconsin Badger graduate.

When I reference back to a player~the quilt is inspired by that player but will be a donation quilt. Most likely to Margaret's Hope Chest or to Alycia's No Soldier Forgotten quilt drive. I am already thinking ahead to next year's donations. What about a series of donation quilts based on favorite animals?! lol

Design Wall Tuesday

Another *late* edition!

I started the black and blue quilt. The plan was to make black crumb blocks with a dark blue sashing. The outer border will be stars and the backing planets. Sounded like a good plan and one a boy of any age might like. :)

one problem~I have way fewer blacks in the scrap bin than I thought. I just might not have a lot of variety in my crumb blocks.

Is it permissible to go shopping for crumbs?! sorta an oxymoron~I think. :)

Stash Update Week #11 and #12

Time to update the stash totals! Last week, the computers were down and this week~well, guess I am just a tad *late* :) Here it goes~a two week combination!

Fabric added (two weeks): +4 yards
Fabric added this year: +57 yards

Fabric used (two weeks): -21.5 yards
Fabric used this year: -79.5 yards

Net fabric for the year: -22.5 yards

What I accomplished (while I was away from blogging):

• finished the T*shirt quilt
• finished the JR1600 quilt
• pieced three stars then assemble into Stars UFO (really ought to give it a better name!)

Goals for next week:

• quilt and bind Stars UFO
• begin another project

National Quilting Day

How I spent National Quilting Day:

1. I made more hockey lace bracelets. The fans at the Bradley Center just can't seem to buy enough of these! For $1.00 each~they are the cheapest thing going at the Booster Crew table.

2. I quilted a neonatal donation quilt.

Yep...35 x 35 and I probably spent more time with getting it ready than actually quilting it. :)

3. The Angel Wings pattern from Willow Leaf Studio shows on the back more. Unfortunately, the long arm oil spotted the back in one place and I will need to research how to remove it.

4. I loaded the Stars Sampler. I'm thinking yellow or maybe the light blue thread.










A pretty full day then we went to the Milwaukee Admirals game, watch the boys lose the the Lake Erie Monsters and a Huey Lewis and the News concert. What a fun day and today~I'm dragging. :)

Star UFO Update

This player from the Milwaukee Admirals told me that his favorite color combination is blue and yellow. It makes a lot of sense as he is from this country. :)

Well, I kept wanting to make yellow stars on a blue background for this quilt. More traditional, if you know what I mean. As I looked at more and more star patterns, I remembered I had started a star sampler about 7 years ago. I put it away from some reason~frustration maybe? I pulled it out and I had 9 yellow stars on various blue backgrounds. I made 3 more uneven (were suppose to be wonky but didn't quite *wonk out*) then dug into the yellows for sashing and borders. Not enough for both and since I didn't want to buy~I just sorta cobbled it together. I also had 29 inches left of a blue/yellow print that I used in the outer border.

I learned a few things from this UFO.

1. Put away fabric with it if you ever plan to finish it!

2. I am not so worried about perfection in my piecing as I was 7 years ago!

3. Better pieced into a top rather than pieces in a pizza box! lol

Check out the one point on this friendship star! yikes.

I know I have a tri-recs ruler somewhere. Here is the block that proves it and look at these points! Just chopped off a little, right?!

What was I thinking here?! Don' answer! I don't want to know!

Once I seam the backing, it will get quilted and bound. It finishes at 50 x 63, the minimum for a Quilt of Valor, I believe.

Someone, somewhere will be covered and warmed with this quilt. :)

Out of the box and into some one's arms. :)

Jelly Roll 1600 Update

I finished sewing back the binding on my JR1600 Blue quilt. I am still undecided *if* I should add stars to it or not.

I'll think about it for a spell. :>)


This quilt reflects the color choice of two Milwaukee Admirals players~at the time. Both, Mike Bartlett and Blake Geoffrion, like blue as a solo color. Blake has since been promoted to our parent club, the Nashville Predators.


pattern found here.


I quilted it with the Star and Crescent panto from Golden Threads.

I backed it with this light blue patriotic fabric.

WIP Wednesday

Today I quilted my friend, Cathy's Round Robin quilt. She had given me permission to do 'whatever' I wanted with it! I feel as if I committed several crimes against quilting with this challenge piece. The first thing I did was sew down the flange...gasp...so it wouldn't flap back on the backtrack portion of the panto. The second thing I did was sew right over the applique and couching...double gasp! Don't come looking for me! I'm hiding from the quilt police!

I must be in an ornery mood~wait till you see what I did to my Star UFO I pulled out of the closet to work on! Let me warn you~points just aren't as important to me now as they were about 9 years ago! :)

The Angel Wings panto from Willow Leaf Studio. It took me 4 months to figure out what to sew on this. I decided to go with the somewhat 'Garden Theme' and the look of butterflies. Plus they are very forgiving. :)

I'll link back to Willow Leaf Studio when their site is back up...okay?

EDIT: 9 years ago I lived in South Lyon, Michigan. 7 years ago I lived in Southlake, Texas. Therefore I think the Star UFO was begun in Southlake and is about 7 years old. :)