A Quilt Top, A Finish, and a Start

I finally feel like I got something done! Of course, that could be because I actually finished something ;-)

It's not a great photo because my cutting table was making a shadow on the quilt, but here's a big quilt that's been in my way with the borders finally sewn on! It's folded into fourths for the photo, it's a queen sized quilt and I didn't have enough space to easily lay it out for a photo. Now this quilt top is hanging the sewing room closet, where it can wait (out of my way) until it gets quilted.

I just finished the quilt for my next grandson less than an hour ago. It's big for a baby quilt, but they specifically asked for it to be suitable for him to drag around until he's five or so. I had the perfect piece of minky for the backing in my stash, so I made it as big as I could and still use the minky for the backing. I literally only cut off the selvages and trimmed the bottom and top edges straight on the minky! I cut it really close, closer than I probably should have, but I was happy to use up every bit of that minky.

On the minky back, you can see the quilting I did pretty well. I opted to use my Bernina with a walking foot to quilt it. This is my favorite way to quilt an equilateral triangle quilt. I like to quilt 1/2" away from each side of every seam, which makes an interesting looking design, and you get bonus stars at the intersections. You could certainly change up the distance from the seam to quilt, I just really like the 1" sashing look it gives when I quilt 1/2" away from the seam. These are 6" triangles, if you went bigger or smaller you'd have to adjust.

As for the new start, I started playing around with some leftover 1" HSTs. I haven't counted how many I have, It's easy enough to make more should I need them. I have no idea what the final project will be, but I started making little stars.

I've only made two stars so far, but I'll make them until the leftover HSTs are gone, then I'll decide what to do with them. Once I know how many I have, I can decide if I want to make more HSTs or just figure out how to use them in something small. This star will finish at 4" in a quilt. Right now I'm thinking they might be the centers of an economy block (square in a square in square) Those blocks would be 8", so if I made 25 or so, I could get a baby quilt out of it. I don't think I have enough HSTs to make 25 stars, but I'm liking the idea, so perhaps I'll be making more. 

For the next while I won't be using anything for leaders/enders, not even these cute stars. I won't be piecing much for a bit. I have towel bibs to make for two different grandbabies, and I want to finish the weighted blankets I have ready to sew channels in. Since I won't be piecing, no leaders/enders will be happening. 

I haven't been quilting on my longarm since I got back from my trip. I was stuck on how to quilt the quilt. I was reading in the Stashbusters yahoo group, and they were talking about simple quilting. I really needed that discussion, because I realized if I had just done something simple I would have finished both the quilts I've got basted by now. Finished is better than perfect, and I needed the reminder. Now I feel ready to start quilting those last two basted quilts.