While I Was Gone...

So I kind of fell off the internet.  It's that Christmas crafting rush, but mine starts before Thanksgiving, and then I'm just pooped.  I make things, but just don't feel doing the last step, blogging them.  Luckily, I kept up with the photographing, so now that I have my mojo back, I still have pictures of stuff that I've sent away.

So now I can show you what I was up to when I was away!

This was the second center I've worked on for our Round Trip Quilts Bee.  (The first one is here.)  Jenn, from  Never Just Jennifer, and I was in love with it the second she posted it to Instagram.  I was glad I didn't have to wait long to get my hands on it.

She's a fellow New Hampshire-ite, and wanted a quilt that was all about our awesome state.  Her notebook was full of great ideas, like those maple leaves, mountains, snowflakes, and flying geese.  I got this at the height of geese migration when all the fields are full of flocks coming and going, so I had to do some flying geese.

I first added that strip of red to tie in the red maple leaves Leanne had added and then started pulling all my bright and low volume scraps to make the geese.  I really didn't have a solid plan or pattern, just made geese in a bunch of sizes, then moved them around until I got a pattern I liked.  (My one regret, is that pointed the geese flying out of the corner, and not into it in proper flying "v" formation.  Next time!)

The last step was the corner.  Red again to mirror that red maple leaf, and some Anna Maria Horner blue.  It's called Migratory Lace, so I kind of had to use it prominently, and it reminds me of trail maps, and NH has some great hiking and skiing trails!

I love this one, and can't wait to see what happens to it next!

Friday Finish: Round Trip Quilts!

Remember back during the summer when I joined the New Blogger's Blog Hop hosted by Plum and June?  A few of those bloggers joined up to make the Round Trip Quilts round robin bee.  I've already send my center out to Chelsea at Patch the Giraffe, and I'm super excited to see what she does with it.

This center (the four blue/grey stars on yellow) was started by Leanne at Devoted Quilter, and I was a bit stumped by it at first.  As part of our package, we sent along notebooks with notes about our likes, dislikes, ideas for the quilts, etc., and Leanne said she wanted us to just do our thing and not to be scared of using any colors or prints, but to keep it stars.

So I knew I wanted to add a lot of color, partly because that's my thing, but also so it doesn't stick to one color scheme too early in the quilt.  I decided to do tiny little stars along two sides, but was pondering how to add more than six colors/prints, when my friend suggested I do some Victoria Findlay Wolfe-esque centers.  Normally, I wouldn't throw that much crazy at a quilt that wasn't mine, but I figured in such small amounts, it would be perfect.

I pieced the centers out of my tiniest scraps, then trimmed them down to 2.5 inches.  Then made flying geese for the points and trimmed them down to 2.5 inches wide.  It was a challenge working with such small pieces, but sewing bigger and trimming down made it a lot more accurate.

I'll be sending this one off to Chelsea as soon as I can get to the post office.  And soon I'll be getting Jennifer's (of Never Just Jennifer) center.  I was in love with it from the start and can't wait to see it in real life.

Here's the bloggers in the group!

Heather at QA CreationsLeanne at Devoted QuilterKim at Ties That Bind QuiltingLiz at Green Cheese QuiltingMary at See Mary QuiltChristina at WIPs and TutsJennifer at Never Just JenniferChelsea Huckins at Patch the Giraffe

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Glory Be Quilter for TGIFF!