Starbursts quit - Finished

I'm a bit surprised myself.

That it's actually finished.

This was originally started as part of the San Diego Modern Quilt Guild (founding member right here, y'all) SD Bee.   And I hoped to finish in 2013.   C'est la vie.   I'm very happy with how it turned out.   Even though my BFF made me pick a hard to manage quilting pattern.   With starbursts.

Lots of photos to follow - wear sunglasses.  I like 'em bright.

First, Matilda had to pose.   This was her own choice and she did a great job looking surprised.   Or bored.   Or something.  Unless she's bouncing, it's hard to tell.

And the whole thing up on the pulley quilt hanging system that I built for this, or for hanging a shade over the carriage house doors, or for putting up a movie screen.   Or whatever, because pulleys are awesome.  Although I do need a different pole.   Things are heavy.

In the center of each diamond is a 9 pointed starburst.   Why?   I had someone over when I was starting and she didn't like regular stars.   I'm somewhat certain my friends are all in a competition to see who can get me to do the craziest thing.   Who wins?  Everyone.

I extended the lines out from the points and then alternated three designs in the sections.   Big figure eights, wavy lines and swirls.  I didn't think about the fact that in some areas, to complete a section I had to advance the quilt top to get the whole design in.   And then reverse because the quilt is HUGE and there were a million diamonds.  Or maybe it's 92 x 105 inches.   

I bought 3 different yards of fabric for the binding and then used something I already had.   This is one of the reasons why I'm about to run out of fabric.

And this is another of the 2016 FAL planned projects.  Or rather I should say hoped for finishes.  I am only about 1/2 way through at the moment.

Crashers

I've invented* something new.  AKA, I thought of something that cracked me up so I ran with it.  I will try to explain but it will not crack you up.  Probably.

Our guild is on the second round of a local bee.  It kicked off this month with a new member, Alison, who chose some nice blocks that intrigued me.  Also I was cutting 2 1/2 inch squares from my scraps and procrastinating anyway.

My invention stems from the fact that I'm not in the bee.  But I wanted to try the block anyway.  So I became a Bee Crasher.  It's just like a Wedding Crasher but with less cake.  Basically I made a block for her.  Then another one because it was cute.

I surprised her with them on Sunday and I hope she was happy to get blocks that she wasn't expecting.  

I may try it more often but I said the same thing about wedding crashing too and that hasn't panned out yet.  I did crash a wedding once, it was a small beautiful beach wedding on Kauai.  The reception was at an old plantation where all the guests were staying too.  The bride's family came over from Japan to celebrate and were excellent drinkers.  Everyone was friendly and delighted to meet an actual wedding crasher.  The next day I went zip lining which led eventually to me jumping off a mountain.  I imagine that these two little blocks will lead to great things as well.  

*Patent pending.  Unless my lawyer says I can't patent this due to the law.  Or if Kelley notices that she basically did the same thing for me but nicely and with a great picture included.  Thanks Macy!  I heart Apple and her cold dead eyes.

2012 Bee Blocks

Just a Quick rundown of the SD Bee blocks that I made in 2012.
For Amanda




For Barb



For Pam

For Jen

For Theresa

For Susan




For Sandi, although for some reason I only have a picture of half at the moment. I'll update when I've recovered from the plague.



For me

Sew Fresh Fabrics Bee Block

Sew Fresh Fabrics Bee Block, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I was sitting here this morning and thinking about redoing this block because it didn't quite turn out as expected. We fought a lot and I ripped it apart a couple of times. It's loosely based on the Oh Fransson mod mosaic tutorial. Loosely because I basically read the directions and then did one step right before veering off into crazy.

Crazy in this case was piecing the giraffe from two bits. Which is my favorite part of the block. But it kinda threw off the rest of the block with the odd angles. Eventually though I got enough pieces sewn together to cut out a 12 1/2" square. I called it done and started the search for my micron pen to do the signature for the back of the quilt.

Just as I'd decided to just make a new block though, I started to get really nice comments on Flickr. Yay for outside input to keep me sane :) Hopefully the brown and other bits I added go along well enough with the other blocks.

Sew Fresh Fabrics Scrap Bee

Sew Fresh Fabrics Bee, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Hooray, my package of scraps for the Sew Fresh Fabrics Scrap Bee arrived today and I love all the fabrics! These are not little scraps either, I'll have no problem making a 12.5 inch block.

Hmmmmm and Hooray

Hmmmmm, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

That's not quite right. Unless there's some sort of magic to occur later. But I think that I've just used the small corner from the wrong block. I'll try again later.

In other great news, I was lucky enough to join in on my first bee. I got the email from Sew Fresh Fabrics and will have a box of scraps in the mail by the end of January with a block to be completed and resent by end of February. HOORAY! It's to benefit Project Linus.