Interlocking Stars

I'm jumping on the interlocking stars (aka Sparkle Punch) bandwagon because I love this and this and this and this.  I dropped everything I should have been doing to make this as soon as I saw it. A large quilt is on my someday to-do list, but for right now this will be turned into a pillow: 

I mapped out how much of everything I needed and chopped it all up.  All of the squares are 3" finished. It took a while to square all of the wonky stars up but for my next bigger project I invested in a 3.5" square ruler.

Fabric Key Chains

One of my first sewing projects was making fabric key chains back in Dec 2009.  Mine is still going but it's all frayed and looks like crap.  The brocade fabric was pretty but probably the wrong choice.

I spent forever trying to figure out what fabric I was going to use for my new one (that was the HARDEST part).  I went with the purple Aviary 2 for mine (others are gifts) and while I still love it I gave it away because I now totally want something with that awesome Remix rainbow Stripe.  So.... I'm off to make another :)

Fabric left to right:
Outside: Michael Miller Love Birds, Inside: Remix, Ann Kelle, Stripe in Bright
Outside: Aviary 2 Sparrows in Lilac, Inside: Aviary 2 Lodge Lattice in Lilac
Outside and Inside: Andrea Victoria Black Damask

Fabric Key Chain tutorial is here.  I add one inch to the fabric cut length (14" instead of 13") so it is easier to put on my wrist.

Sewing Entertainment

One day when I was quilting I was humming along to Katy Perry's Last Friday Night song for so long that my husband showed up and hooked me up with the actual video:

I have to admit this is a break from my norm, I usually (like >99% of the time) quilt to Taylor Swift with a little Lily Allen thrown in.  Anyone else have a standard go-to playlist for when they sew?

Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild Pillow Swap

Just an FYI... All of the pillows have been posted over on the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild website: 

Pillow Swap Reveal

The LVMQG hosted a Not-So-Secret Secret Santa Pillow Swap (as I like to call it) where we each picked out a fat quarter for our inspiration. My swap partner chose Joel Dewberry's Heirloom Tile Flourish in Amber.

In my previous post I showed you the fabrics I pulled to match.  I stared at that stack of fabric forever and had no idea what to do with it. Personally, I love the Heirloom collection and wanted the actual design on the fabric to be the focus.  I didn't want to chop up the 'Tile Flourish' too small or you'll lose those large super-awesome designs.  I added the solids because I add solids to everything.  The two orange Kona colors I pieced amazingly matched both of the oranges in the fat quarter very closely!

I did a 1" straight line vertical quilting to keep with the stripe pattern and I attempted to add some waves to the solids.  For the back I had a piece of Amy Butler Twill in Mint which just happened to match.

Sorry, this is a boring pic, but I always want to see backs of pillows no matter what:

I added an invisible zipper to the bottom of the pillow.  I just bought the invisible zipper foot and this was its inaugural run.  It was super simple.  (Always visit Sew Kate Did for the best invisible zipper tutorial!)

Now for the pillow I received!

The fat quarter fabric I chose for my pillow inspiration was Kumari Garden Tarika in Gem:

My swap partner Mary used Texture Magic and sewed around each flower.  So it puffed up like this:

Which turned into this!

It's really cute!  I love how the puffiness worked so well with the fabric design.

She added a zipper to the back:

 and some design stitches around it to finish it off:

(Thank you Mary for my pillow!)

Silent Cinema New Wave Quilt

I made another new wave quilt! :) I love this pattern and wanted a bit smaller one for the couch.  (My other new wave quilt is here.)  I love the yellow and grays in this fabric line.

I used 10 Silent Cinema fat quarters, Kona Snow for the sashing, and Kona Coal for the top and bottom gray.

The back is Front Row in gray with a strip of Zoetrope in blue outlined by Kona Coal.  I love pieced backs and this is my favorite yet.

Here's a shot at my quilt label made on my embroidery machine.  I completed it in September 2011.  It was my I'm-in-the-middle-of-5-other-projects-so-let-me-pause-everything-and-make-this-for-myself quilt.

I quilted it with an all over meandering pattern... which was quite fun this time since it wasn't as large of a quilt to shove through my machine.

I machine stitch all of my binding on because I suck at hand sewing and it saves me like 52,342 hours.  I use Red Pepper Quilts method which I'm also getting better at with each try.  I'm slowly perfecting my corners, and my sides are already looking great since I bought the stitch-in-the-ditch foot plate for my walking foot. :D

You can find the New Wave quilt pattern on Oh! Fransson's website, designed by the super awesome Elizabeth Hartman.

City Lights Quilt

I really love fall.  This park almost makes me feel like I'm in the middle of it.  Although I'm far from it and you have to really search here to find trees that are changing. :)

This is the City Lights Quilt from the Book City Quilts by Cheri House.  As I was making this and it was spread all over the floor even my husband passed by and commented how much he really liked this one.  (I still need an idea for what to make for him someday!)

The front resembles a sky scraper.  I was inspired to make it for a friend that works downtown Chicago.  When I found the backing fabric I was beyond excited.  It's Timeless Treasure's Airport and it's filled with airplanes, terminals, and casinos!  The recipient designs airports so I couldn't have found a better print!

I finished it up with quilting 1/4" around each 'window' and added black binding.  The entire thing is Kona in more colors than I can remember.

I've been using my embroidery machine for each quilt label. I really love adding this detail:

so very cute!

It really was a wonderful day out when we took these pictures.

Although we had to pick off 100 threads and pieces of grass before we could get some of these:

And here it is in it's new home.... which it appears it has already been claimed:  :)