New Block: Sail Boat

I've seen this block or variations all over the internet. I like the nautical theme and the graphic nature. It's so cute, I thought I'd try it!

Pardon the threads and cat hair, as always!

Pardon the threads and cat hair, as always!

I really like a version that Messy Jesse did. 

I made this block with a nautical border. It works out to be about the same size as my Friendship Star mini quilt. But I'm thinking of adding more to it to be a larger quilt. 

What would you do with this oversized block?

I'm linking this hand pieced block up with Kathy and Slow Sunday Stitching today. 

Stormy Friendship Star: A Finished Mini Quilt

This is the first finish I'm posting for 2015. I've had a few others but with the snow stormy weather it's been hard to get any good photos. I was able to snap a few for this when the sun came out for a brief moment. 

This is also the first finish for Adrianne's (On The Windy Side) 2015 Finish Along

I started this mini when I was working on  another mini quilt top, so it's been done for many months. I used many of the same fabrics, vintage gingham, dots, and hearts, hand printed red cotton, and new anchors.  I added new storm cloud fabrics for borders. I made a plain red back with a vintage floral strip. When I layered them, I realized that I had made the quilt back too small, so added some dark blue borders on the back. 

I made a really scrappy pieced batting then I used cotton thread in matching colors to quilt inside the friendship star. For the rest of the quilt I used white pearl cotton.  I bound the edges with the fold over method that I like. I only bordered three sides in blue, so on the finished quilt front there's one red side. 

Stormy Friendship Star Mini measures approximately 29 1/2" x 29 1/2", but you can see, it's not exactly square. Is there a standard size or size limitation for mini quilts? This would be sweet wall hanging, or to drape over a chair or couch back. But it would also make a cute baby mat for a nautically inclined wee one. 

Bippi was probably most helpful on this quilt. But she did get disgruntled that it was so small. She prefers a larger size quilt to really give her room to sleep under. 

I'm also linking up with Kathy's Quilts today for Slow Sunday Stitching. Today she's talking about stress in stitching. Although the deadline for the Q1 finishes for the 2015 Finish Along is fast approaching, I feel pretty good about what I've accomplished the quarter.  Now I just have to make the time to blog about everything!

 

Sunday

Sunday Stash #2

My BFF sent me a huge box of fabric! I haven't even had the time to go through it all yet. 

Some of the things she sent are appropriate for the season!

Some of the things she sent are appropriate for the season!

I also needed  to order an exact thread for the quilt I'm working on and couldn't help picking a few things up from Fabric.com

I love these nautical prints, but they are so large! Not sure how to incorporate them in to my work...

I love these nautical prints, but they are so large! Not sure how to incorporate them in to my work...