Minnesota Stars Quilt - A Work In Progress

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Mine flew by much too quickly.  We had an overnight guest in the form of our daughter's corgi, Samson.  She and Ryan were going up to Santa Cruz to help paint the family vacation home along with her cousins, aunts and uncles and figured that Samson would be happier here with us.  He is such a good and smart dog that he is never a problem.  He did miss his mommy and daddy though.  We then were able to provide Kristen and Ryan nourishment on their return trip home, plus enjoyed catching up with what is happening in their lives.  On Sunday I wasted most of the day renaming my blog.  Who would have thought something so simple could take up so much time.  I finally decided on the new name of "Stray Stitches" since so much of my life seems to be made up of one kind of stitch or another.

Today I thought I would share a work in progress that I have been working on for probably 4 months.  This is a kit from Connecting Threads called Minnesota Stars Quilt.  I should have easily completed this quilt by now but have taken several classes online that have interrupted the completion of this quilt.  I'm trying to be realistic now when I say I hope to complete this quilt by November.  I have never had a quilt take this long to finish and I refuse to let this become a UFO (unfinished object) as I have only one UFO currently in history of quilt making. 

Here are the steps that it takes to create one block:

Squares all cut and one flying geese patch sewn.

Both flying geese patches made. You need four of each patch.

(Sorry about the dog hair in the pic!)

Two geese sewn together - create 4.

Step 3 - Create 4

Sew two triangles to the previously created square (pictured above) - create 4

Sew triangle to just completed triangle - create 4

Sew a flying geese patch to each side of the large square

Sew the triangle square to each side of the flying geese patch - create 2

Join together to complete the block.

Here is a look for my work in progress, just a corner of it but I think you can get the idea.

So far I have completed four of the six required rows.  Only two more rows to go!  One of the hardest parts of this quilt is selecting the prints to make into the blocks.  In this kit there are 5 different browns and 11 different prints to create the blocks.  I am trying to make it so the center print of the block is not near another within each row or next to each other in either the row above or below it. 

My latest interruption in finishing the Minnesota Stars Quilt is I am starting a new class at Quilt University called "Make Your Own Quilt" with Nancy Chong as the instructor.  I've taken a class from her before and she is great!  I have selected my fabrics for this class - a light blue and a white on white.  Now I have to create my own design for this class.  I hope I can, but if not, she does provide a pattern that you can use.  This is a five lesson course spread over 10 weeks.  I'll let you know how things progress and will share pictures later.

Well, I'm off and running on a Monday.  I hope your week is off to a good start.  Look for my first giveaway next week.  Speaking of giveaways, check out Megan's great giveaway at http://kitschysuburbia.blogspot.com/2010/08/giveaway-time.html .  She is giving away a $40 gift certificate to CSN Stores.  Check it out!

Happy stitching!