Quilt-A-Long Week 6 , Star blocks, and a finished quilt top

I finished my block for the quilt a long today. This is week 6. Yes, I have skipped week 5 so far. I am a little intimidated by all those triangles.
I joined a friendship star swap over at Craftster. The premise is that we trade 6 stars with up to three people. I chose two people so I need to make 12 stars for them and 6 for me. I will receive 6 stars from them that will go into a quilt. The organizer is going to add a different block each month for however long there is interest. This way we can have a really neat quilt full of different fabrics from all over.

These will not be the blocks that I send because they are inferior in some way. They either came out 1/8th inch short (or more,shhh...) or the points were right along the edge so when they were sewn into the final quilt it would be terrible. Yes, there are 7 that stink. I do have 11/12 that are great so almost there...

I have also been cutting out little bits of fabric this week for my postage stamp quilt. I also joined another swap where we send up to 60 squares to ten other people. That seems like a huge amount (600 squares!) but I have tons already cut that are ready to trade too. I am trying not to have to many duplicates, so this is a easy way to get new fabrics.

I am leaving tomorrow to go visit my parents and go to the beach for a week! I can not wait. That is part of the reason I have been so busy trying to get all this done so I can finish up when I return home without to much stress or worry about sending late.

I am planning on reading and relaxing next week. These are a few of the books that should be enjoyed over the next several days.I am also bringing these charm packs along in case my mom want to learn how to make a quilt like this:

I made this top this week which I think would be perfect for a little baby girl. This is Moda's Spring Meadow fabric. I can not remember where I saw the idea for this design but it is super easy. I spent an hour watching t.v. drawing a line dividing the square into two triangles and then added another 1/4 inch line on either side. Put a 5 inch white square good sides together with the colored square and sewed on my 1/4 seam line. Split those squares in half and I then had 80 half triangle squares. Laid them out on the floor until they formed a diamond shape that I liked and sewed them together with 6 inch white border. Ta da! Finished.
I am going to try Blogger's new device that allows you to post ahead of time and your posts magically appear in the future due to the fact that I don't know if I will be able to post while I am gone. So, starting Friday stay tuned for nine (?) days of pictures from beautiful places I have had the fortune to visit. I expect everyone to be anxiously awaiting each day at 8:01 AM. Of course, it might not work and in that case I apologize for getting your hopes up.