Rapid Star

I whipped together this quilt top today.  She's already had the baby and she lives in Spain, so I'm doubly behind.  I knew I had to not over complicate things, so I went with the Scrappy Star Quilt from In Color Order.  I ran out and took pictures in the lull between 2 rain showers this evening, so the backlighting is atrocious, but hey, we work with what we got, right?

 If I had to do it over again I would take out the blue and the other solid to make the star all patterned material, because I don't feel like the background contrasts enough with the solid violet in the center of the star, and the blue has the opposite problem of sticking out too much.  For a nap time project though I would say it's pretty good. 

Inevitable Light

I had the opportunity to attend Time Out For Women in Cincinnati this past weekend with a number of friends.  It's my first time going and it was incredible!  It's an inspirational conference for women.  I don't know what I was expecting, but it was so much better than what I had in mind. 

Favorite Music:
Jenny Oaks Baker performed.  I had never heard her play the violin in person before.  I don't even know how to describe how incredible she was.  She played a classical version of Everybody Hurts by REM and she had everyone in tears.  It was crazy.  My jaw dropped several times while she was playing.  Wow!!

Favorite Speaker:
Laurel C. Day:  She's the vice president of product at Deseret Book.  She married at age 40 and instantly became a stepmother to 4 boys.  She talked about the Lord being able to fill the desires of our heart- not that he necessarily gives us what we want, but that if we sincerely trust in the Lord he will make what we have be enough - that it will become the desires of our heart. 

Fun moment:
I heard someone calling out my maiden name.  I was nine hours away from my home town, but I ran into 2 good friends of my mom and also a friend I grew up with.  It's such a small world!

I came away from this experience really wanting to improve myself and do a better job with my children and calling.  I most definitely want to go next year if I have the opportunity.

Love in a Quilt Top

Random Home Addition

I answered the door yesterday and a bird went flying across the porch.  This is what I found:

I saw its tail poking out of the nest last night, so it's actively being used.  Fair warning: if you come to our front door you may be greeted by a feathered friend.  I guess I won't be turning on our porch light for a while.

L-O-V-E

I started paper piecing some letters today. 

Blocks a Plenty

April's Building blocks were super quick to piece together, so that was nice.  It only took me a half hour during the kiddos' naps. 

I also finished the April blocks for do.Good Stitches.  We had to make 2 Hour Glass blocks in Spring-inspired colors with a gray center.  I didn't want it to be completely pastels though, because I feel like that's the obvious choice for Spring.  This is what I came up with from my scraps bin:

Blocking the Basics

I finished the last two Building blocks of March this weekend.  They're not perfect, but not bad.  Circles are my least favorite thing to quilt, but I'm getting slightly better at them.

 Here are all 4 Rail Fence Blocks together:

That brings the 1st quarter of the quilt along to a close.  Here are the results so far:

Linking up to BOMs Away.