Oh the Pain!

You will perhaps have noticed my comments about the Oh My Stars quiltalong that I'm following. The latest star to make is called Woven Star. There were warnings about bias edges, and using spray starch, and I thought "Yeah, yeah, I can do this". Well, we all know where pride goes, don't we?

So I cut really, really carefully, sprayed with starch, and started trying to put the block together. I knew how I planned the block to look, but every time I moved a few pieces to sew or press, it took me ages to organize them again.  Headache, and mental cursing. Chain piecing is out. Then I found the block was coming out a bit small, obviously my 1/4 inch seam was at fault. Out with the seam ripper!

Finally with a sigh of relief I assembled the block, pressed it, and found...I'm short in a couple of places and will lose the star points! Grrr!

Worst of all, I looked down the table at my quilt group, and saw that one of the members is sewing a quilt that is composed of the exact same star!  Completely by coincidence!   And she wasn't gritting her teeth, and the blocks looked beautiful.  See what I mean about being overconfident?!!!

Here's a pic of the offending block. I'm not sure there are going to be any more like this one in the quilt. Or should I take a deep breath and try again?

Till next time

Sue

Swooning and Stars

Welcome to WIP Wednesday!

We've just come out of a week of really cold freezing weather, even the dogs didn't want to go out. So I stayed in and sewed. See, there is a silver lining!

I got a request for a laptop sleeve, so I made my first one. It was fun!
The pattern is from Ali Foster, she does such great bags, and the patterns are super easy to follow.
Here's my sleeve:

The new owner sells real estate, so I thought the shark was appropriate. I won't tell if you don't!

I've been working away at my Swoon blocks.

Here are my latest two:

They are both big, 22 1/2 inches. I'm nearly finished another 3 in the medium size and then I'm going to start QAYG and see how they all fit together.

I'm also working on my Oh My Stars quiltalong. It certainly keeps you moving when you don't want to fall behind! Since my last post I caught up with the little stars and made 2 more large and 4 more medium stars. Here we are so far:

This isn't the layout, I'm just putting them up as I do them, but I'm happy with how it's shaping.
There's already another star to make, so I'm behind again, but in a manageable way!

How was your week? Actually this post covers two weeks, and I'm happy with the progress!

Linking to

Till next time, have a good week sewing!

Sue

Design Wall Monday

There are two design walls (aka plastic tablecloths) in my room.

First are my Swoon blocks.

It's coming along quicker now since I joined the Swoon-along group on Flickr.
The link is on Katy's page here:

 

I'm not sure if you can get to the group another way. Anyway, there are nearly 450 members, and some wonderful pictures. Take a look, you'll be amazed how beautiful the blocks are, in all sorts of different fabrics and colours. What a pattern it is!

The problem is, (isn't there always a problem!), that I have 3 sizes of block, and no idea how I'm going to fit them together. Any ideas?

I took this picture of the layout plan

and according to this, I've got about 9 blocks still to do, and then a jigsaw puzzle.

Second design wall:
Oh My Stars quiltalong. See my sidebar for the button.
Here are my stars so far:

 These blocks are turning out well, but the problem here (!) is that I am at least 15 tiny stars behind, 5 in each star variation, and since there is the same amount of work in a little star as in a big one, I've got quite a task to catch up!

Fortunately, today is a free day, no pressing task, and it's cold out. Brr! So I'm going to stay in, and get to some of those little stars.

I'm linking to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday

Till next time

Sue

Oh My Stars!

Now that the Christmas rush is over, I feel I can do some more sewing without guilt. Well, there's always some cleaning to do, and the dogs want a walk...

I had fallen behind in this quiltalong, (see the button on my sidebar), not a good omen since it's only recently started. There'll be lots of time for me to fall behind again!

So last night I made 5 tiny stars with pinwheel centres. They take as much time, no, maybe more time than larger squares. You probably already know that, but it doesn't seem fair.

Each star variation has 1 large, 2 medium and 5 small stars. So I've done the Simple Sawtooth Star and one with a pinwheel centre. 13 more variations to go! I'm excited to see what else we can do with this star!

Here's my collection so far:

Till next time

Sue

Linking to:

Take a look at the great projects on the blogs over there. Fun!

2011 in Review

It's New Year's Eve today, and time for a look back at where 2011 took me.

Calgary has become home! Yes, I never thought I'd be confident driving in city traffic, specially as I'm cursed with the worst sense of direction on the planet, but it happened. I've lived in 3 houses in 2 years, quite a change for someone who lived in the same small town for 25 years. So feeling settled is BIG for me.

I've had so much fun learning more about quilting and changing my goals and preferences as I went. I'm sure there'll be lots more changes to come as I continue to experiment with different colours and styles.

Here's a few of my finishes for the year. Maybe there were more, but these are my favourites.

Then there was the busy Christmas sewing:

The WIPs

And there are some older UFOs and some quilts in the planning stage.

To my quilting friends, travel companions and blogging friends, thank you! I'm looking forward to a happy and productive 2012.

Happy New Year!!

Sue

Linking to 

Are you in a joining mood?

Seems like there are some awesome groups to join that will be starting in the New Year. And at the moment I feel like when Christmas is over I will have loads of spare time to do lots of projects!
That may change, but I'm hopeful...

First up, Japanese +and x bock exchange.
You can see some of the blocks and discussion here on Flickr

Here's a pic of some of my first blocks. The exchange is in groups of 5, and the joy of it is that I will have someone else's fabrics to mix in with my familiar ones. Fun!!
The blocks are quick to make, and I cut the squares when I'm making other things, and have them separated in containers on my sewing table, ready to pull out.

Next is the Oh My Stars Quilt Along.

Here's the plan of the finished quilt.


 

Isn't it great?!! I haven't made a single star yet, but I've spent happy time planning the fabric, and when it comes, I'll be sewing up a storm! I've decided on turquoise, coral and white in a mix of fabrics. Can't wait!

Lastly, I joined a Pay it Forward. Christmas seems like a good time of year to be thinking of this, passing on some joy to another.
Want to join me? The information about it is here.

Pay it Forward

I'm so excited to do a Pay it Forward!

I'd thought about this for a while, and 2012 (because realistically this will never happen before then!) is the time.  So when I heard about it from Kate at a sometimes quilter I decided to jump right in!

Here are the rules I copied from Kate:

1. Important! You have to have a blog.

2. I will make a little something for the first 3 blog owners who comment on this post. It will be a surprise and I will make it and send it to you some time during the next 365 days after you have commented.  (just don't expect it for Christmas!)

3. Make sure you let me know your email address, or that you aren't a no-reply blogger so that I can get your contact details.

4. To get a handmade present from me, you have to play too! This means YOU pledge to send a little handmade something to 3 readers of your blog. It doesn't matter what you give, as long as it is handmade by you!

5. Once you comment here, you need to post about your Pay It Forward on your blog(within 48hrs) to keep the fun going! *you can just copy the rules from me and please include the Pay It Forward badge in your post. Also, feel free to join the Flickr group to see what else is being sent!

6. Follow my blog - I'd like that but you don't have to :)



That's it, simple! And a chance to make another quilter smile, (hopefully with delight)! That can be my New Year's resolution too, the smiling part, and a whole lot more attainable than my usual :)


Till next time


Sue