Sherbet Stars

I just love this new little quilt, my second rendition of my Beothuk Star pattern and my quilt for my third annual QAL. It is one of the items on my Q2FAL List so I am so happy to have another finish to check off. I also have just loved seeing Beothuk (Bay-uh-tuck) Star quilts pop up all over Instagram. There is a hashtag: #beothukstarqal if you would like to check it out!

This little quilt that finishes at 42" square is a perfect baby quilt, a wallhanging, or even a good-sized table topper. I curated this kit for the QAL, and you can still snag one for yourself if you'd like, at my main sponsor, Needle & Foot Fine Fabrics. I hope you will pop back here tomorrow when the linky party opens, so you can check out all the other versions of my design.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Progress and Beothuk Star Quilting Ideas

This little owl block, measuring 4.5" finished, is just so adorable I can hardly stand it! It was one of the Tiny Tuesday blocks in March when the colour was green. You can find Sally's tutorial at The Objects of Design, when she was a guest blogger for Angela at so scrappy. I have all my March ones done now, and have started in on February, which was yellow.

OMG for June

Popping in under the wire with an OMG. But first, if you are looking for TBT, Throwback Thursday for those quilts we made before we started blogging, this month it's being hosted by Andrée at Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!

So for OMG this month I hope to get two more placemats made to match the two I made at Christmas as per my daughter Brianne's request.

I was able to dig up the correct Kona colours, thanks to mentioning them in my post about the first two I made. Yay for details!

I used Pool, Ash and Coal. The two grey embossed fabrics I used on the backs.

I Like/Love #28 for May

I missed my usual end of the month gratitude post, so here we go a week late. You can find other grateful people who link up weekly or less often, at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1. I love Spring blossoms. I've been taking photos of the flowering bushes and trees over the past few weeks. They provide so much colour inspiration. Many of these are now done, but others are taking their place!

Our flowering crabapple was glorious this year, thanks to the tons of rain and pruning it got last Fall. It's taller than our garage! This was taken May 25.

Luminous Layers

Well, I missed the deadline by hours, missed the sunshine we had this morning, but I am still very happy to have a finish to share. A deadline I did not miss is the Q2FAL, as this is one of the quilts on my list. This is the May challenge for Island Batik, who supplied all the gorgeous fabrics; 'Twilight Chic" is the line I used. This month is also focusing on Hobbs Batting, who supplied several packages of batting for us.

You may have read the finished flimsy post, which is here, but I will tell you again that this is a quilt I designed during the 30 Quilt Designs Challenge that I hosted again this year, (three years running now!). I will also tell you, though most of my readers know by now, that I love star quilts. I started to design this from the outside, working my way in towards the centre.

Black is always hard to get the light on the right angle to show the quilting, but despite the lack of sun this afternoon, and literally a half hour before severe thunderstorms hit, I managed to get a few shots that show the quilting. This one also shows the colours very well!

TGIFF! and My Mother's Lilacs

Welcome to my blog and my turn to host TGIFF! If you would like to be a host it is easy-peasy: you can sign up here! If you're new to my blog, I hope you'll poke around a bit, maybe even investigate my current ongoing QAL, Beothuk Star.
For those of you who read this post and it wasn't then the TGIFF post, don't be confused. My originally planned finish did not quite get finished due to a bunch of real life happenings, but this post was only published hours before, so with the approval of the monthly manager, Anja of Anja Quilts, I am using this post to host. Did you follow all that?!😜 With any luck I'll link up the originally planned one with my own linky party!

My finish was actually a finish back in February, but I couldn't tell anyone...

However, I can now, so it is finally time to show you my latest publication in all her glory and intricate detail. There will be lots of pictures, but then you know me, that's how I usually roll! And, in keeping with how I roll, there's a pretty amazing story to go with the making of this quilt.

I named this quilt 'My Mother's Lilacs', as it is a tribute to my mother in design and in fabric. I designed it back in September 2018 when we Island Batik ambassadors got a call for submissions for the May/June issue of McCall's Quilting with the theme of mothers in mind. I submitted it. And.

It didn't get accepted. I was disappointed as I thought it a perfect tribute: block, fabric and issue, being one year to the very month since my mum had died. A year later I still can't say that without tearing up, can barely write it. Just doesn't seem real. I think being so far away exacerbates that 'can't be real; she's still there, in her house' feeling.

But then! Round about the beginning of December I got an email out of the blue saying they'd like to use my quilt for the July/August issue and could I get it made by mid-February? Yikes! .......  Yup!

30 Quilt Designs Challenge Winners

The 30 Quilt Designs Challenge 2019 has ended. It began on March 15 and ran for 70 days, ending on May 25. There were just nine of us this year, about half the number from last year. This was due to the platform switching to a private FaceBook group, as well as to lots of last year's participants being just too darn busy, both in real life and in their quilting life!

My wonderful main sponsor who came to me out of the blue, and who I now consider a friend (I've said it before but it's amazing how many people I have met through my blog), is Brenda, of Quilt Designs in the Yard.

You must check out her site here. She does amazing work. Think Barn Quilts, but scaled down so you can have them in your yard, maybe on a shed, to dress it up, in a spot in the garden maybe where things don't grow so well, or maybe at your front door!