I'm alive!

Hi everyone!
  So, so sorry to take such a long blogging break.  It was unintentional but couldn't be helped.  As you know if you follow me on instagram, I found out that my back pain and numbness in my leg was more than just a herniated disc.  That particular disc was completely shot and practically nonexistant.  What little of the disc was left had broken and a piece of it was pushing my nerves all the way back on my spinal column.  So, the only real answer for me was spinal fusion surgery.

I had it done on March 13 and am at the 3-week recovery point today.  I am feeling much better and while I still can't do everything I want to do, I am up, moving, driving and walking almost like normal.  I can't bend, lift or twist yet, but it will come with time.  I am improving every day and I go back to my doctor tomorrow to check my progress and see where I go next.

It seems perfect that today is a Totally Random Thursday because I've got so much to show off to you from the month and a half since I last blogged.

**Before the surgery I sewed like a madwoman to get projects done and out of here before I couldn't.  :)  So, I finished up 3 quilts and 2 sets of bee blocks.  Along with completely failing on a star block for Oren's quilt.  I ended up throwing away 2 attempts and just picking a different block altogether!

**First I made a baby quilt for Chris' cousin who is expecting her first.  Her shower was the weekend of my half marathon that I couldn't run so Thursday night I decided to whip her up a quilt for the Saturday morning shower.  And I did it.  I ended up loving the quilt and hating the quilting, but they can't all be winners, so I gifted it and called it done.

All the non-sewers loved that the quilt was "reversible."  I'm just glad they loved it at all.  ;)

**Next up, that secret project I mentioned in February--it was a quilt for the wonderful Michonne and her precious baby girl Greta.  Our Empower Circle of do. Good stitches made a quilt for them and I put it together and quilted it.  Meesh is famous in our group for loving flying geese blocks so I asked the girls to make anything using them in a soft palette of pastels.  I love how it turned out.  I just got some plates and pot lids and drew random circles on the quilt and quilted them using different pastel-colored threads.  Before sweet Greta was born, Meesh called her cupcake, so I found this great cupcake fabric for the backing.  :)

I wish I had gotten a better picture where you could really see the blocks better but I did this in a hurry and then never thought to look at the pics before mailing...

I've been trying out a new zigzag machine-stitched binding on quilts I think will be washed a bunch.  On this one I went around twice--once in pink and once in yellow.

**  I also mentioned that Kim was working on an orphan block project to get quilts finished and donated to a charity and that I had most of a quilt sitting here at the house already.  So I beefed it up with some extra blocks and got it done too.  I hated the blocks individually and once I got it sewn, I kinda want to keep it!  ;)

You can see the quilting better on the back--I just did a simple cross-hatch design following the blocks.  I started a quarter-inch from the block seams in gray, then 3/8 inch from those lines in yellow and then about half-inch from the yellow lines in blue.

** When mailing Meesh the quilt, I also included our February d.Gs blocks.  It was her turn in a great coincidence and she asked for Wheel blocks in a great and bright color palette.  I hope mine looks okay with the rest.  I liked all the colors I chose till I got the block put together and then saw others from the group.  Oh well...

**  And for March in our d.Gs circle, Kim asked for blocks that she'd designed herself.  She's calling them braided star blocks and once put together they'll make stars...duh!  ;)  These were really easy and fun to put together.  Kim wrote a great tutorial on her blog for these simple but stunning blocks.

**And last, in That Stash Bee, Whitney asked for Darting Bird blocks.  I'd never seen this block before, but they were quick to make and I think she picked a stellar palette. She's giving this quilt to a friend in need, and I can't wait to see it altogether.

** But also since last blogging, my favorite boy in the whole world turned 8.  He wanted to just take a few friends to see The Lego Movie, so we did.  I got these great lego candies from the candy store in the mall to put on some cupcakes.  They were a big hit and so was the movie!  It was a simple and great day to celebrate a great kid!

**The surgery went well and I came home from the hospital two days early.  It hasn't been exactly fun to lay in bed a lot and depend on others in the last 3 weeks, but I'm working on my patience and God is blessing me every day.  I'm up and mobile

**I'm sewing again and have already finished a couple of blocks and have some bee blocks to try and work on this weekend.

**Plus we've got softball...Chris' middle school team is winding down and Emma's team is finally getting started.  I'll soon have a picture of my sweet girl pitching to show y'all.  She's worked so hard and it's fun to see her sling it out there.

Sorry for the picture overload.  I've missed y'all and this wonderful community so much.  So glad to be getting back.  :)

A Random Holiday

Happy Valentines Day!  It's not a big deal at our house, and Chris is coaching a basketball game tonight so that's where we'll all be, but it's never a bad thing to celebrate love is it?

I'm feeling like a random post today.  Got too much swimming around in my brain I guess.  So I'm gonna unload some on y'all.  :)

• I finished another star.  It's not may favorite.  In fact, it may be my least favorite.  It was so much better on EQ5 than before I spent a half-hour on it.  BUT, they can't all be favorites and I've only got 2 left.

• I am going to go with the 20 stars on the front.  Chris liked it better, Oren liked it better and a few of y'all did too.  And, it saves me from having so much border to wrestle with getting straight.  Win.

• I am participating in Le Challenge this month.  I took a few months off because of schedule restraints and a bad memory, but was happy to remember in time to play this month.  Lucy and Nat challenged us with "Rising Sun."  I'll post about it tomorrow.  This is a fun, non-competitive challenge for anyone who wants to participate.  You can use any medium, it doesn't have to be sewn.  I actually did a digital print this time.  :)

• Dana posted about pretzel bites the other day and I just read it today.  So I made them today.  Chocolate is over-rated, right?  said me never.  BUT we've had sweets all week so I decided pretzel bites would be a nice snack.  And they are GOOD!!  Definitely try them.  They're easy, just a little time-intensive.  I wish I had a warm cheese sauce to eat with them.  hmm....

via Old Red Barn co. 
Dana's picture is so much better than my phone version and I really want y'all to go make these

• Emma learned yesterday that her class was going to do a valentine exchange after all.  She goes to an enrichment class in the morning and so wasn't sure what, if anything, her class was going to do.  So I ran to the grocery store last night to pick up some Rolos.  We made these fun valentines that were free from How Does She?  I ended up having to use small goodie bags (like reallysmall) so I shrunk the graphic down in my photo-editing software to 3 x 2 inches.  They were cute!

It obviously didn't have the watermark, but you have to give them your email address to get the file and I didn't want to give their stuff away for free...

• I made this soup the other night.  It's a clean recipe, meaning all the ingredients are not processed I think...or something like that.  Anyway, it was really good.  Like Emma doesn't like tomatoes and she ate 3 bowls and really wanted a 4th.  Like it was cold in her thermos by the time she got to lunch the next day and she ate it anyway.  It's a keeper around here.  It has coconut milk in it instead of cream and I was worried it would taste coconutty, but not at all.  I did add some spice since my family likes that.  Really good.

via River North Paleo Girl

• I never got my Valentines decorations out this year with me being hurt.  I'm feeling mostly good now, but just moving a lot slower and I get tired more easily.  It's very frustrating to this independent, impatient girl.  But I did find some very cute decorations I wish I'd made and put out.  Check out this pillow and this embroidery pattern.

• Chris' basketball team is playing in the semi-regionals tonight at home.  If they win, we'll head to Lakeland, FL next week for the Final 4.  He started helping with the team partway through the season this year when the head coach (a good friend) had some family issues and so that's how he ended up coaching two sports at the same time.  He's also a middle school softball coach.  Yes, he sleeps good every night when he finally gets home.  

• I grew up a coach's daughter and Chris has coached something since we met, so it's a life I'm used to and enjoy, but always thank your kids' coaches (little league and up) because they really sacrifice a lot of their personal time and sometimes spend more time with your kid than their own.

• We're about to head up there now to eat with the team and then root them on.  I've got company coming in to town tomorrow and Em's got a birthday party tomorrow afternoon to attend.  I'm hoping to sew some this weekend but we'll see.

What are you up to on this holiday?  What are you doing this weekend?  We're supposed to start warming up I think, so maybe I'll go for a walk and see how that goes as well.  :)

WIP Wednesday--The Starry Edition

Hi everyone!!  I hope you are staying warm and dry today.  It is rainy and windy here, but after seeing how much of the US is under snow right now and the UK with rain, I'll take my day of rain, stay inside and call it a win.

I showed a pic yesterday on instagram of how frustrating it is to follow wrong directions.  I'm tired this week.  And I'm a little geometry/math challenged.  And I got 3/4 of the way through this block by following the rotary cutting instructions of my EQ5 (which led to more Y-seams by the way) before I threw the block away in disgust.

I don't know if you can see well, but the cutting directions were off and I was in no frame of mind to figure that math out on my own.  So, I printed the ever-faithful paper piecing templates and quit for the day.

Today I started over with the pp templates and made this beauty:

Strip Star

Sorry for the difference in the filters making these fabrics look so different but I LOVED how the darker filter made the stars in the blue sections really look like they were sparkling.

Wouldn't a quilt made out of just this block be neat?  You could even have colors radiating out across the quilt if you wanted to.  That would be cool.  But I digress...

Anyway, this is block 17/20.  The end is in sight.

After I threw the block away yesterday, I wondered if maybe I should just stick with 16 blocks and do bigger borders.  I'm making this quilt for Oren's bed, so I'm shooting for a quilt top that's roughly 80" x 88" but I'd like it a little bigger to make up for quilting and wash/dry shrinkage.  I designed 2 versions to show Oren last night.

Here's the 16-star quilt.  I added an outer row of sashing in white and blue and then bigger borders.  This quilt top finishes at 86 x 94.

Then here's the 20-star version like I'd originally planned.  It's got smaller borders and no outer sashing.  It finishes at 80" x 90".

Which one do you like?  I can't decide.  Oren of course wants all 20 stars he was originally promised!  I've got all but the last 3 on the bottom row made and while they don't exactly look like this, it's close enough for me to see what I've got and where I'm going.

So help me out...do you side with Oren and think it needs all 20?  Do you think I should convince him 16 is good.  I plan to make all 20 either way and just put 4 on the back to offset the Star Wars fabric I relented to buy a small amount of for the back if I go with 16.

I'm linking up with Lee.  Head over to see what everyone else is up to...

Star Progress

It's been awhile since I worked on Oren's Star (Wars) quilt.  When each of my children turned 5, I decided to make them a quilt representing their party theme and assumed loves at the time.  Emma had an Under-the Sea party that inspired me to make her a zig-zag (back before chevron was the word for it...) quilt out of Mendocino fabrics.  Oren was and is a Star Wars geek and so his quilt is a star sampler.

Well, he turns 8 next month so it's high time this quilt was done.  And I'm getting there.

I mentioned last week that I put my "design wall" back up and so the stars went back up too.  I had 14 done and want to make 20, so I'm pretty close to making these blocks into a quilt top.

Last week I showed a sneak peek on Instagram of my Star of the East block coming together.

I ended up having no trouble at all with the Y-seams but did struggle with the center point and plan to go back and fix it this week, but it's finished.

Up next was a Rocky Road to Kansas based on Faith's tutorial from the Summer Sampler series.  I loved this block when I made it for that quilt and I love it still.  It used up some of my scraps from this quilt and it's so graphic and clean looking.

Here are those two blocks:

And here is the quilt up to this point.  This is not the final arrangement of the blocks, just a way for me to see them all and see what fabrics I've used.  They're all going to need a good pressing and to be trimmed up before anything gets stitched together.  :)

I've got 4 blocks left and have them designed in my EQ5.  Up next is the Strip Star and I've got the fabrics pulled.  It looks simple enough and I would love to finish it today but that's a maybe...

My goal is to have all of the blocks for this quilt done by this weekend and have the entire top pieced with sashing and borders by the end of the month.  Sounds doable, right?  Just keep sewing, that's what I need to tell myself.  :)

What are you up to this week?

Friday Finish

Actually I finished this quilt a couple of weeks ago, but since no blogging or photographing was done since I hurt my back, I'm just getting to showing this off.

Last year, I asked the Empower Circle of do. Good stitches to make me blocks featuring rectangles and squares.  We're a busy group made up of some of the sweetest women you'd ever want to meet and I figured this would be simple and creative for the girls.

I gave them this color palette and asked them to sew up whatever they wanted using straight lines--no wonkiness.

via design-seeds.com

They all rolled in and I knew that once I'd gone out on a limb colorwise, I needed to go out on a limb with the construction of this quilt as well.  So I decided there needed to be a lot of negative space in this quilt.  I can handle asymmetry but have had trouble with negative space in the past.  It feels like I just didn't finish and I need to do more.  But I thought these blocks were strong and could support the negative space.

After questioning myself for some time, I ordered some purple, laid them out and went for it.  Once pieced I wasn't sure how to quilt it other than I knew I wanted it done and sent off to comfort someone instead of sit at my house any longer.

So I free-motion-quilted loops all over.  It's been some time since I FMQ'ed anything and I had always thought my machine really didn't like FMQ.  I'm still not convinced it does, but I realized that a lot of the issues were with me and how I was moving the quilt.  I still had a lot of thread breakage (and if anybody has suggestions on why my top tension gets so tight my thread breaks I'm all ears) but the "eyelashes" got better and I figured that Rome wasn't built in a day and neither would I be good at FMQ that fast.

This quilt is far from perfect.  In some places on the back, the eyelashes are bad.  In some places my loops are less loopy and more shaky.  In some places I backed myself into corners and had to cross lines or quilt close together.

But the quilt police will not come after me and take this quilt or me to jail.  Life will continue and while the quilt is not perfect--neither is the quilter.  I decided it was a lesson in life.  I'm sending this quilt to an organization that teaches girls and young women to be strong, to never give up on life.  I'm giving this quilt to a young lady who needs to know that through obstacles and imperfections, life keeps going.  That when things look tough and you want to quit, there is another imperfect young woman out there who sends her love--a whole group of us that keep trying and keep going each day.

Isn't that what do. Good stitches is about?  Aren't we trying to help others as we grow as quilters and as people?  I'm not excusing my mistakes and saying I don't want to get better.  I'm getting better as I share, as I grow, as I work through life's imperfections.  I'm saying it's okay to be less than the best, but it's not okay to give up.

I hope the recipient of this quilt feels every bit of that.  I hope she knows that the hardest part of every battle is going forward when it seems too hard.  I hope she knows there are those of us out there that care and that we're all going through battles, big and small.  Let's fight those battles together.  :)

Quick Peek Monday

I'm busy quilting loops on my purple quilt for our Empower Circle.  I'm squeezing in a little bit here and there when I have time.  We've got a busy week ahead.

Here's a quick sneak peek.  I can't wait for this one to be finished and ready to show off!

What are you up to this week?

One block at a time...

I've been working on some individual blocks lately.  Either blocks that are due to friends for bees or quilts we're working on together, blocks for quilts that I'm in no hurry to make and make a block occasionally, and even blocks just for the fun making them.

It's not very often that I don't feel the weight of my WIP basket hanging on my shoulders, so it's been fun this past week to make a block here and a block there just for fun.

Here's what I've been up to:
I made this Stargazing block from the book Modern Blocks in sweet pastels and low-volumes.  This is one of my most favorite blocks ever and it's always fun to see those little 3-inch stars come together.  I'm not a tiny-pieces person.  I don't really enjoy fiddly stuff and I've been known to yell loudly when working with little pieces, but this one is fun, especially 'cause I only made one of them.  ;)

Next up, the Economy Blocks that hit big on Instagram over the holiday break.  Last year it was the Scrappy Trip Around the World, this year it's Economy Blocks.  These are also known as square-in-a-square blocks.  I used the paper-piecing template from Rita and it made these a dream to whip together.  They're only 5" finished so they come together quickly, you can use scraps and even for someone like me with hardly any novelty prints, it was easy to find designs to feature in the middle square.  I only made 4...for now!

Awhile back when I got overwhelmed with all that I had on my plate I sat down and just started piecing 2.5" strips and squares together.  There was no rhythm or rhyme other than I made 12.5" blocks out of them.  Some came together like log-cabins, same mostly just in strips, and some were completely randomly pieced.  I made about 7 before I felt content and could carry on with my to-do list.  This past week I made 7 more.  I have no plan for these blocks other than I'm sure it'll be a keeper.  It'll be a hot mess of scraps and I don't know that anyone else would want it.  The only plan I have for this is to work on when I want and finish it when I think it's big enough...  And I have to admit it feels nice to have a weightless WIP hanging around.

Now that's a mass of scrappiness right there!

I've got Kaleidoscope blocks up next for Nicole and she made some stunning ones to show us for inspiration.  I've got my paper-piecing foundations all cut out and have fabrics pulled.  I am already jealous of her amazing style and now I want her quilt before it's even made.  That's the kind of friends I like to keep.  :)

I forgot she wanted a bit of red too, so I've added that in as well.  Can't wait to get started on these blocks.

I'm really working on conquering this week.  I'm conquering clutter in our home.  Conquering deadlines before they become an issue.  Conquering procrastination.  Conquering my half-marathon training plan (it's in 6 weeks!!!).  Conquering negativity around me and within myself.

Small steps is the answer.  I'm sure of it.  I can conquer 2014 if I just work on it one block at a time.  :)

What are you up to on this dreary Monday?

It's the most Random Time of the Year??

Wonderful?  Random?  Those two seem to go together sometimes don't they?  Well, let's just say yes and get through this randomness shall we?

Ok--since the giveaway day post I've:
--Slaved away in the Santa Shop.  I'm wondering if there are labor laws for elves...  But really, I worked every day in our shop at school where we sell low-priced items for kids to buy for their families.  We live in a rural area with not much shopping other than Walmart and the Dollar Tree, so while we sell basically the same goods as those stores (as in the same things...) it give the kids a chance to buy gifts for their family members "on their own."  Some of the kids really enjoy the thought of doing their own shopping.  And some kids just buy stuff for themselves...

--Attended UF's graduation (Go Gators!) where Chris was honored as Distinguished Educator in Florida.  There were only 5 teachers in the state recognized.  They had to wear gowns and sit on the stage throughout the graduation.  But before the students were announced, each teacher was given a special plaque and the dean of the college of education read a little thing about each of them.  Chris HATES these kind of things.  He's the kind of person that says just let me do my thing the best I can and leave me alone.  I chose this pixellated photo from the jumbo-tron to show you because you can see where it says cheers and applause.  That's not the prompter telling people to applaud, that's the closed captioning telling you everyone was!  They announced that Chris has a near perfect pass rate on the AP World History class that he teaches and that, my friends, is a really big deal.  I am so proud of him and how hard he works, so to see others recognize him was so special.

Then we had lunch in the President's Suite at the stadium.  You know, no big deal, just lunch in one of the swankiest places at the university...  It was pretty cool.  :)

--Attended multiple karate classes with Oren.  He's learning fast now.  And loving it.  Chris was with Emma at pitching lessons.  Who knew the schedule filled up so quickly??
--Made HUGE progress on the quilt for my Dad.  I've got to have it done by tomorrow night...
--Made lots of Christmas goodies for the kids' teachers--spiced pecans, chocolate crinkles, cranberry-orange-pistachio rollups, thin mint Puppy Chow...and probably gained 5 pounds by sampling.  ;)
--Not run--at all.
--Went on a field trip to a local farm with Oren's class.  Yes, this is his second field trip this year to local farms.  Yes, we do live in a rural area.  Yes, many of our children are already familiar with things on a farm.  It makes me laugh.

Best part of the trip for Oren?  The hay fight.  Seriously...

--Watched Chris be named Teacher of the Year for his school.  Again, he hates this kind of recognition so to get 2 honors in less than a week made all of us giggle at his discomfort.  ;)

--Started quilting Dad's quilt.  I'm 3/4 of the way done.

--Slept like a rock every single night.

--Wondered how important sleep really is??  

--Wondered if I'd bought gifts for my entire family but not sat still long enough to make sure...

--Planned how organized I'm going to be next year when this time of year comes along. 

--Then laughed knowing I won't be organized then either.

--Thanked God for every second of this crazy, busy, full-to-the-brim life.

What have you been up to??

Wordless WIP

Nearly wordless...I'm making progress!!

This is a little shamrock I embroidered in one of the big navy sections.  I just thought it would add a little something.

 I'm busy baking and packaging up teacher Christmas presents along with our normal schedule of pitching and karate lessons so I've gotta run...

I'll be back tomorrow to show off some of what we've been up to!

OH!!  And congratulations to Jenny and Stephanie, winners of my SMS Giveaway Day Etsy Gift Cards!  They've been contacted, cards have been delivered and spent already!  That's my kind of shopping.  :)  Thanks to all that entered and especially to those who decided to stick around and make friends.  :)

WIP Wednesday

It’s been awhile since I was actually working on something to show off a work in progress on a Wednesday.  But deadlines will do that to you…

So, I’m busy working on the quilt for my Dad.  I mentioned before that he’s a Chicagoan with largely Irish roots.  So I knew that I wanted to make him an Irish Chain quilt.

Then my friend Dana decided to do a tutorial on a Double Irish Chain quilt and I knew immediately where I was headed with Dad’s quilt.

Dana’s quilt was full of pinks with a navy background but I could imagine swapping those pinks for some golds and greens and making my Dad a “Fighting Irish Chain” to honor both his heritage and his love of Notre Dame football.  J

How’s that for a nifty name?  It should be one of those before and afters on Wheel of Fortune!

Here's a quick mock-up that I made in EQ5.  

 Dana’s tutorial is great for laying out exactly what you’re going to need and how to get started.  I was using scraps instead of new fat quarters, so some of my piecing was a little more complicated but no harder--it just required me to think and count instead of blindly following directions.

And after seemingly forever while I waited for the navy fabric I had to order and cutting strips and sewing and pressing and trimming and sewing and pressing and sewing and pressing I’m finally getting some blocks made!

I’ve got 12 made so far and they come together so quickly that I should have most of the rest done by tonight.

These are Block A for the quilt and will not be set together like I laid them out here just for a quick shot.

They’ll be off-set with Block B which is mostly navy with gold corners.  I haven’t even started cutting them yet—one step at a time.  J

So, that’s what I’m working on today.  I just keep reminding myself that I’ve got to keep working—Christmas isn’t very far away!  Yikes!!

What are you working on today??

Back to Work

Let me take a moment to give a heartfelt thanks to every man and woman who has served their country as we honor our Veterans today.  Thank you also to the families of those veterans who have also served by sharing their loved one with us during their time of service.  Your work and commitment to our country does not go unnoticed.  Thank you just doesn't seem enough, but please believe how heartfelt it is.

Today in America, many of us have the day off of work and school to celebrate Veterans Day.  But I actually got some work done--quilting work that is.  Each year I make a quilt for one of my family members.  This year, it's my Dad.  He's a kind and easy-going person who gets along with just about everybody he meets.  He's a born-and-raised Chicagoan that fell in love with a small-town country girl and ended up living in Florida.  He's a die-hard White Sox, Bears, and Blackhawks fan.  Both sides of his family hail from Ireland not too far back on either family tree, and so he's a born Notre Dame fan as well.  He's a retired football coach and still a history teacher.  He'd do anything for any of us and deserves something special.

So, I decided on what I'm making and got set to start.  Then I realized I didn't have any navy fabric and had to order some.  While I wait for it to arrive, I went ahead and started cutting and sewing my green and gold strip sets.  I'm about halfway done.

I can't wait to show you some blocks when I get the navy.  I hope it turns out like I drew it up in EQ, but I'm going to keep you on the edge of you seat for awhile.  haha

And now--for the winners of the birthday Etsy Gift Card Challenge.  We had 30 entries and our trusty friend Random.org helped me choose Sarah from Thrift Store Crafter and Allison C. as the winners!  I'm emailing you both now.  You'll both have one week to get back with me before I choose new winners.

Thanks for all the birthday love.  I had a great and quiet weekend.

Congrats again to the winners!  I'm subbing the next 3 days this week, so I will hopefully make it back to post again this week...fingers crossed!  ;)

Finish It Up Friday

If ever there was a need to finish something up, it was my Wonky Pinwheels.  I'm embarrassed to admit, it was the November quilt from the Empower Circle of do. Good stitches.

I have to say that our group is made up of 10 rad and lovely ladies who understand that life is busy and that we all have real lives and real commitments outside of our circle.  Our group is made up of Moms, Wives, Sisters, Friends, and most of all caring women who are there for each other when we can be and committed to helping others.

So...

I've told this story before, but back in November I asked for wonky pinwheel blocks based on Natalie's awesome tutorial.  A few straggled in and a few were put together wrong (easy mistake to make--I almost did twice), so by the time I got them all assembled, procrastinated, fixed and re-assembled it was April.

Then I set it aside to finish some other things before quilting.  And then it was August.

So I started quilting.  I chose a random pinwheel that I liked and echo-quilted around it and then made that a concentric pinwheel throughout the quilt.  Basically I just kept echo-quilting about half an inch around the design until the entire quilt was full.

If you look closely in the upper middle of this shot you can see the pinwheel I started with.  It's the only pinwheel in the quilt that's not quilted through.

I didn't worry about exact distances or straight lines.  I didn't worry about the occasional pucker that came with madly quilting and enjoying the process.  I didn't worry about perfection.  I quilted and quilted and quilted.

I went through 2 Guterman thread spools on this quilt.

The quilting really shows up on the back, although these pictures came out so pretty I forgot to get a close-up of just the quilting so you could see it.  But I really like how the khaki-colored thread shows up on the back in this ninja-flying-star design.

And then, to finish it off, Meesh got these labels made for us on Spoonflower and shared them with us to help us share the love.  The color matches perfectly.  Like it was made for this quilt.

I'm sad to see this one leave because I do love it, but I hope it provides comfort and warmth, both physically and emotionally to a girl who needs it.

Linking up with Amanda Jean.