Project Quilting--8 is great!

I've been following along with project quilting for 2 or 3 years now, but I always had other things going on and was never really able to jump in.  This time, however, the theme, was just up my alley and I felt like I could squeeze in a little something.

I've always loved the number 8.  My name has a lot of h's in it (the 8th letter of the alphabet.)  I was also born in the 8th month.  Growing up, my 8th year was a special one--I got my ears pierced, it was one of the summers we got to spend at my grandparent's house.  That summer I found my lucky rock hiking up Mount Timpanogos (can you see the 8 in it?)

Then, this week, I was craving a hamburger, so I took the kids out and look at our number:

Anyway ... I played with a couple of 8-related ideas, but I kept comming back to my favorite quilty stars.  I drafted up this sketch thinking that I'd use my favorite Kona Nautical as the contrast.

However, when I went to my stash, I found the remains of a blue jelly roll.  It was from my first "real" quilty purchase several years ago.  It was nestled among scrappy squares in my 2-1/2" scrap bin that looked like too much fun to set aside.

I pieced the HST's in between working on another project and laid things out a couple of different ways.  I made a couple of modificaitons that cleaned things up a little.

I'm loving how this came out.  I see leftovers from so many other projects:  Sam's Trek quilt, my nephew's baby quilt, and one of Sarah's service projects.  Some of the white squares are from a batik remnant I picked up shopping with my Mom last fall, and the lining and back are remnants from my very first trip to Hobby Lobby.  So many fun memories!

Thanks for the inspiration, Kim @ Persimmon Dreams! (Linked up here as #98)