2013 Finish-A-Long: Q3 Finishes

The third quarter of the Finish-A-Long was a good mix of projects - one charity quilt, one for our home, and one that was a bit of a challenge. {Click on quilt names for their original posts.}

Top priority was FAITH Circle's June quilt, where we used SewCraftyJess' "Starburst Cross" block tutorial. I was thrilled at the "hot" blocks my bee-mates sent in!

They were stitched simply into rows to create Starcrossings.

My next project was dealing with the Modern Maple blocks made by That Stash Bee. My original goal with these was to have a Modern Maples quilt to use in our home by the time fall hit, and I started the Falling for Modern Maples flickr group to have some company. If you like this block as much as I do, check out the group for some great inspiration - and feel free to join. It's a no-pressure group of like-minded-maple-lovers.

On my couch right now is Anticipating Autumn. With the variety of block backgrounds, it was a logical jump to set them with a mix of solid and print squares. Not sure this block is out of my system quite yet.

The last finish for Q3 used the Slice and Insert blocks I made during Katie & Jacquie's class several months ago. At first I was considering a layout something like this . . .

But when it came right down to it, I opted to create a 'medallion' of sorts with wide, unequal borders. Meet Fissures.

What I didn't get to were the blocks my Always Bee Learning Bee bee-mates made with the Polaroid blocks collected during the *Picture-Perfect* Polaroid Swap. This one will go right on my Q4 list for sure.

Many thanks to Leanne/shecanquilt for all her work on the FAL! Be sure and check out all the amazing finishes for this quarter!

Linking up with Leanne/shecanquilt and the Finish-A-Long Q3 linkup.

Starcrossings

When hubby and I head out on a photo shoot, we expect the unexpected. Which is another way of saying we never really know where we're going to end up. Today it was an outdoor suburban mall, where we basically took a walk through 'town,' stopping to take pictures whenever it struck our fancy.

"Starcrossings" is the June project of the FAITH Circle of do.Good Stitches, and my second finish serving as a quilter for the group {see #1 here}.

It's no secret I took direct inspiration from the quilt by sewing over pins and the Cheer Circle. That quilt just seemed perfect for our recipient.  Each member of our circle made 2 starburst cross blocks using the tutorial by SewCraftyJess. I think they are really striking blocks, and I love the mix of fabrics my bee-mates used.

For backing and binding both, I used Lucie Summers' Summersville Spring in hot pink.

As I was mulling over how to quilt this one, I just kept coming back to the wavy stitch built into my machine. Either that or a straight-line grid. In the end, I did a combo, stitching two parallel lines at the intersections of each block, both vertically and horizontally, and then two wider spaced lines going through the center of each block, again in both directions. For piecing and quilting throughout, Aurifil white 50wt just seemed the way to go.

All in all, I'm super pleased with this finish, which just happens to be on my 3rd quarter Finish-A-Long list. These happy blocks were a pleasure to work with, and my hope as this quilt heads off to Restore Innocence this week, is that it will find its way to a young woman that finds joy in it just like I did.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.