MidMod Stars and NTT

Hey there my friends, and welcome to this week's Needle and Thread Thursday.  As you can see from my photos, we are covered in a blanket of white, but unfortunately, it's about 4.5 inches of pure sleet rather than soft, fluffy snow.  The only footprints in it are from Tucker running through it and digging in with his claws.  It's so icy and hard-packed that regular walking doesn't leave any marks at all. Thankfully though, we didn't get any freezing rain ice buildup, which is the big worry with power lines and trees.  We have kept our electricity, and we are so thankful.  Our neighbors just to the south of us were not so lucky.

The weather did give me time to get my latest quilt finished, and I love how it turned out.  I decided to lean into the Mid-Century Modern feel of this pattern and call it MidMod Stars.

It felt so good to have a finish after such a long break raising a puppy.  He's nine months old now, so technically I'm still raising him, but he has gotten a little easier lately.

As I mentioned in my last post, last fall, when I was really missing creativity but still couldn't sew, I did lots of pattern designing.  This is one of those designs.  When I designed it, it was an immediate favorite and I knew I had to make it first.  It was a lot of fun to sew.

I decided to quilt this one with a nice, easy stipple to ease back into the quilting groove.  It gives the quilt plenty of texture and allows the pattern to really be the star.

This quilt makes very efficient use of either fat quarters of long quarters, so I didn't really have many scraps to speak of.  So, for the back, I made what I like to call a Focus Stripe backing.  This backing is from the Stash and Yardage Backs section of my book, Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs.  Often, I like to use a large print in the center focus stripe, but for this quilt, I made the backing using three tonal prints to keep the color stripes as bold as possible.  It's a really simple backing, but adds just a little extra interest to the back.  My book is full of full patterns for pieced quilt backs (30 of them!), ranging from simple to a little more intricate, but all are easy and are a perfect way to remember that the back of your quilt is another place to get creative!  

And a crisp Kona Navy binding frames the whole quilt nicely, and looks great with the front and back of the quilt.

One of the things that felt the weirdest about this quilt is the fact that I had to purchase every single bit of fabric for it.  Usually I shop my stash and then purchase fabric to fill out the fabric I need, but after using up all of my fabric last year, that's no longer an option.  Of course this means that until our ice melts, I'm at a standstill on starting something new.  Hopefully we'll get above freezing within the next couple of days!

It's almost time to get our party on for this week, but before we link up, check out some of my favorite projects from last week.  Sandra at mmmquilts showed off this lovely quilt with a snowy backdrop of her own!

Check out all of the delicious texture on this sweet owl quilt, shared by Anne-Marie at Stories From the Sewing Room-

And finally, Jan at The Colorful Fabriholic linked up this scrappy teal goodness-

Okay my friends!  I hope you're all warm and cozy and getting lots of good creative time!  Let's get this party started!

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link within your 

    post.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)