Stars

I was lucky enough to 'win' some lovely Lemoyne Stars at our challenge group. They are all in different purples and look amazing! There are nine of them, which is a good number for a lap quilt but I wanted to be a little more adventurous. I didn't want to just join them together, so found some fabric which would make a good contrast for setting squares.

Then I decided to push it all a little further, and make some Irish Chain blocks to add a little more interest to the quilt.

This is my mock up. Looking good!

And here are several blocks on my design wall. I only have nine star blocks, so have agonised over how to use them effectively as I really don't want to make any more. I think I've solved it, but will have to get sewing before the big reveal.

Scraps and strips

Since Christmas is over, I have been trying to rationalise my fabric stores. I have a lot of my own fabric, and also lots of fabric donated to Project Linus. The problem with the Linus fabric is that it is fabric which people don't want - often because it's horrible! But I am grateful for the donations, and such a cheapskate that I like to use as much of it as possible. I am always looking out for good patterns which use scraps, and this lead me (of course) to look at the lovely designs which Bonnie Hunter has on her site.

There are so many great designs that it's hard to choose, but I settled on 'I spy a 4 Patch' as a good one to use up fabric.

First I chose lots of novelty squares which I thought would appeal to boys, football, fishing, boats, animals, tomatoes - well, they were bright and colourful, so in they went!

Then I found a reasonably sized piece of fabric with footballs on it, and cut all the novelty squares out of the same fabric. This meant that I could use lots of different fabrics for the four patches. Which do you like best?

Pieclique

I have been trying to get on track with all the things I have to do, and since the meeting of my challenge group, Flutterwheels is next week, felt I had to make a start on the blocks I need to take! Last year's theme was curves, and the challenge this time was to make a block using Sharon Schamber's method of piecing curves.

First of all you make a template for the main shape out of two pieces of freezer paper ironed together.

Then you use the starch method of creating the curves on the template. I must admit that I am a big fan of the starch method, but it had never occurred to me to use two pieces of freezer paper, despite the frustrations of the sogginess of only using one! Next you use water soluble glue (Pritt in my case) to glue the quarter circles onto the wrong side of the template, and this enables you to open out the seam and sew along the fold line created by the starch! Easy!


It was easy too, and although the preparation was a bit fiddly, the results were worth it, as you can see. I haven't put the method in detail as if you click on the link to Sharon's site, and look at 'free stuff' she has an excellent tutorial on how to make a Pieclique circle!

Resolutions

This time of year is for looking forward, and I like to make resolutions, even if I don't keep them. Last year I made some un-resolutions (things that I wasn't going to do) and did amazingly well! No Sunbonnet Sue quilts, no Suffolk Puffs, no kits and no cat fabrics entered this house. None of my quilts have been hand quilted, and I haven't started throwing away scraps (although I do draw the line at anything less than 1.5 inches!). I'm still buying too many books (Amazon's one-click facility has a lot to answer for!) and I've certainly not resigned from my three quilt groups, Project Linus or stopped blogging!

So what of this year? It was certainly a shock to see exactly how much fabric I had in my stash when we decorated DS's room (aka my old sewing room), so I have decided to go on a fabric diet! Instead of buying what I want,

(Michael Miller fabrics are the best!) I'll only buy what I need.

Since I'm a committed scrap quilter, it shouldn't be too difficult - should it?