Take the Sky

"Take my love, take my land,Take me where I can not stand
I don't care cause i'm still free 
you can't take the sky from me."
- Firefly Theme Song

This quilt was a lot of fun to make! It's a baby quilt for friends of mine, J&R, who went with a space-themed nursery for their baby girl. They're fans of sci-fi shows so I wanted to bring that into the quilt and make it extra special. I've named it Take the Sky, pulling from the theme song to the TV show Firefly, one of J's favorites.

Here's the front & back of the quilt - you can see I dug out all the space-like fabrics I owned (and borrowed from Momm too!) to make this gift. Fabrics feature: Star Wars, Harry Potter, general space & planets, astronauts & space shuttles, and constellations!

I pulled coordinating colors and all the black & star print fabrics I could find in my stash. I made some wonky star blocks to start, along with the crescent moon using a technique I learned from the July NQM Block of the Month Club. 

Then I pieced the Big Dipper constellation, the paper pieced TARDIS (free pattern from FandomInStitches) and drew my own paper pieced pattern for the Star Trek insignia block. 

a glow in the dark bee!

Then it was time to puzzle piece the elements together filling in blank spots with fabric, randomly pieced segments and fussy cut space bits. I love joining these together to make the whole and it turned out pretty cohesive at the end.

Next it was on to quilting, no easy feat with such a mix of blocks and fandoms. I started by stitching in phrases to add some extra nerdiness. Things like: Expecto Patronum, I aim to misbehave, To infinity and beyond, wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey, Beam me up Scotty, Use the Force, a golden snitch & Nova Corps symbol. Then I personalized the center moon block with the baby's name and had fun filling in the rest of the quilt with stars, stippling, and general free-motion fun using several Aurifil threads.

I got to meet baby A and gift this quilt the the other week and am happy to know it will be well loved by the whole family. They'll have fun searching for the special details stitched into the quilt over the coming months & years. Baby quilts are pure joy to make & gift! Love it well A: Live Long & Prosper! 
 Linking up with Needle & Thread Thursday with My Quilt Infatuation & From Bolt to Beauty Finally a Finish.

Week to Week

return of the snow day!

It's hard to believe that this time last week I had the second snow day of the year due to another foot of snow; while today hit 60, sunny with a breeze promising Spring. What a difference! All the snow made perfect quilting weather with some small breaks for snow angels, soup making and catching up with friends. Once I can get some decent pictures of the quilts I finished I'll be able to post those here!

Had some trouble with a snowman, so I opted for a Dalek instead! Better watch out if you've still got snow on the ground.  :)

Detail of my #disco quilt - had enough fabric to add a couple rows so this will be big enough for the bed! I mixed a FQ pack of Architextures and some yardage of Botanics for this quilt and am loving how it's turned out now that the top is complete.

Worked on finishing up my watercolor quilt from the class I took with Katie PasquiniMasopust.  I pulled out my trusty Aurifil threads and used all the colors you see in the picture to quilt this. I chose a matching turquoise for the binding and will have a finished picture soon. This quilt is on my Q1 FAL list so it was nice to wrap this one up.

Paper Pieces is a new business here in town and I was able to stop in the other week with a coworker. They were great and we came away with some sample packs to learn how to English Paper Piece. Of course, once back at work we sat down to stitch up our very first flowers.  Several days later I saw the instagram from Tales of Cloth about making #flowersforeleni so I decided to put my skill to work.  I made two more flowers and sent those off in the mail. What a great way to share our talents with those who need them!

my #flowersforeleni 

 With all the snow melting & rain the river is creeping ever higher and since it warmed up so much the mist was enthralling. Spring is on the way friends and I am ready to enjoy it!