Pathway to the Stars

Now that the kids are back in school, I've had a bit more time to sew! More importantly, I've been able to clean and it STAYS clean, at least for a few hours until the kids get home! Since my "quilt studio" is also our dining room table, that's really important. I can wipe up the sticky watermelon juice and odd bit of breakfast cereal that some how escaped the bowl, and it stays clean enough to sew on without being concerned that the fabric gets dirty.

I took a class back in June from Colleen Blackwood called "Pathway to the Stars". With the kids now back in school, I've been able to pull it out again. I finally got it to an "almost-finished-with-the-top" phase, and wanted to share! It's my 2nd class with Colleen (I also took a free-motion quilting class). Actually, it's only my 2nd class ever. But I have a feeling there may be more to come. Colleen is a very talented quilter / artist and has designed quite a few quilt patterns. She teaches these classes locally and not-so-locally. You can see some of her patterns at laughinglizzies.com. We're really lucky to have her here in our neck of the woods!

As usual, I learned a lot while making this quilt. I'm not sure I'd use the blue background again, but I already had a lot of this fabric and wanted to use it to save a bit of money. Colleen's patterns certainly are challenging for me as a beginner, but WOW, what an amazing result for my efforts! I really want to do her "salmon Run", but I think I need a quick and easy pattern to do next!

I also need to figure out a border. Her pattern uses a pieced border, which I may attempt, but I'm also thinking about a solid border. Here's a picture of the fabric I have a yard or more of that I'm auditioning. Tell me what you think!
Colleen works at the local quilt shop, Pendleton Quiltworks. I can't wait to show her my (almost) finished quilt!!