Starlings of Summer

My intention was that I wasn't going to make anything new in January and that I would just complete some UFOs and WIPs. Ha, ha, dreaming! (Anything to avoid doing school work...)
Actually, I decided to make a large lap quilt for my lovely, young workmate, Emma Diack,
to mark the occasion of her marriage to Phillip (Harvey) Norman.

I could not resist the challenge of trying out this pattern and trying to win 

a fat quarter bundle in the process and so I have made this Starling lap quilt 

after seeing a Fat Quarter Shop quiltalong on Instagram.
(AND, good news...I DID win a bundle, so excited!)

The pattern is called the Starling Quilt (can you see the birds in it?) and it is great for fat quarters - 

I used a bundle of Art Gallery Fabrics 'Imprint' collection that I have had in my stash for a couple of years and added some new yardage of the light grey print and the blue-black print.

Size: 52.5" square

For the backing I used two aqua prints from my stash (yay for stashbusting!) and I made a scrappy binding from leftovers of the fat quarters.

The pattern is super easy to follow and I had the top made and basted in one day, with a simple all over curved line pattern of quilting done with the walking foot (inspired by Jacquie Gering) 

all done the next day.

When making the starling blocks there were a lot of half triangle cut-offs that I decided to 

sew up with other scrappy leftovers from the fat quarters to make another quilt...

usually I would stuff them in a scrap bin until I 'get round to it' so I am feeling quite proud 

of myself for using them (and it is looking really cool - will reveal when finished!)

Hello to all my crafty visitors from Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party
and from Myra's Finished or Not Friday linky party - nice to 'see' you all!