Making a star

I would like to start out by saying THANK YOU to everyone who viewed, left me a comment or sent me an email on last weeks Birds of a Feather Quilt post.  It's now the highest viewed post so far at 777 for one week as of this posting.  Your comments and responses are so kind, I cant wait to show you what I added to it.

This week I was playing on the computer using the EQ7 to make a block, now I didn't say new because I don't think there is such a thing.  I am new at quilting comparatively but even I have seen over a 1000 different blocks out there, just using HST. 

So here it is all HST

All of the squares start out 4"

 I used four different fabrics. 
     Color A - 6 pieces
     Color B - 6 pieces
     Color C - 2 pieces
     Color D - 2 pieces

To make the half square triangles use the combo chart below placing them right sides together.  Make a center crease or draw an erasable line- stitch two lines 1/4" on either side. Cut on the marked line, press to set the seam. A scant 1/4" works best to get the right size outcome.

These combinations
2  sets A+D  will make 4 HST
2  sets B+C will make  4 HST
4  sets A+B will make  8 HST

Open and press the seams to the dark side, square all of them up to 3 1/2" You won't need to trim off much but it is necessary to square it up, your whole block will come out better.

Using the diagram sew them together in rows

All together and Ta-Done!

Feathers feathers

Our modern quilt guild did a feather swap this year with the AMH pattern. This weekend at the meeting I received my swapped feathers.  I have been giving this lots of thought and came up with Birds of a Feather, a free form arrangement of the blocks.  

 

With the swap I will receive a total of 13 to add to the extras I made along with my birdies.  I am still playing with some arrangements and I am missing one of the feathers, thats Ok since it will be part of the outter border. 

 

The only decision I made for sure is I don't want them lined up so I will be adding extra white spaces, more negative places to play with the quilting is a must!

 

playtime

Speaking of quilting, I have now had my Tiara for a year.  I play on it all the time praticing between quilts.  My feather quilt will have no straight lines so wish me luck, this isnt a tiny quilt.  Guess who has a new book, so fun.

Its that time of the week to link up with Lets Be Social and WIP's
 

Off to sew, 

Pam

Waste not

Last week I posted about my regret on having to nix the farmers wife blocks, this week its a baby quilt.

 

Adding a ring of 2 1/2" strips once around and I have a nice block, nine of the blocks on the front and one on the back.  The backing is some Michael Miller fabric I purchased for the last challenge that I didn't use. Lastly I Frankinsteined a few strips of batting together with a little zigzag.  Waste not!

The finished quilt will be about 36 x 36", perfect size to practice my FMQ.  What do you do with blocks that become orphaned for one reason or another?

My next project is going to be an assortment of these soft colored solids.  I am working on a block with extra space between seams, all negative space.  While piecing will take some time, I am doing lots of doodling and playtime on the Tiara.  

 

Back to playing,

Pam

 

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts and WIP's with Freshly Pieced

A finish and a WIP

My finish is a quilt made out of the bee blocks from the New Quilt Bloggers Group bee that was formed at the end of June ~ Yay!   I gave everyone a diagram I did in EQ7 and pictures of my samples to give them an idea of what I wanted.  For the first block of the group I kept the pattern simple and the color request easy as in ANYTHING you have in your stash.  I wanted a solid-ish center and 3rd ring, the rest can be any print as long as the background is white or off white. 

Sample Blocks

Since our group started out with 9 members each making 2 blocks the total would be 18 which doesn't make a great size quilt.  I made an additional 2 blocks to even it out to four rows of five, this looked perfect.  Then I decided I wanted to make a pillowcase to stuff it in so whoever sent me the last blocks would be the pillowcase.  I am still missing blocks from the last person- I will update this post with the pillow case once they arrive.

Finished Quilt for Project Linus

 

Side view

Border Ash Kona Cotton and Colorful Binding

These ladies were so quick I had them all for the quilt before the end of the month, I got started arranging blocks.  Played with sashing colors and decided to go with multiple colors, this is what I got.  Starting in August we are welcoming another member, this will bring our little group up to 10. 

 Thank you for your blocks

Debbie@QuiltingMakesMyHeartSing, Lin@LinsQuilts, Kate@ThreadEverywhere, Jill@PieLadyQuilts, Stephanie@LateNightQuilter, Christina@WipsAndTuts and Cheryl@MeadowMistDesigns

Photo bombed by Bella Rose

 This quilt will be donated to Project Linus locally here in Western New York.  For anyone interested in donating check the website link, most states have a contact so you can just drop off or you can mail it to headquarters.  Here our Joanne Fabrics Store is the drop-off site. 

 

 NEXT

As promised here are my currently finished blocks for  the Farmers Wife Quilt.  Im going to be honest, I am hating doing these blocks and I have come to the conclusion its the size of the blocks.  They are so small at 6 1/2" piecing this small is not a favorite of mine.  I am going to use the book increasing the blocks I want to make for future quilts but I am nixing this project.  Ive never done this before but I dont want to waste any more fabric.

 

Plus I finished another bird for my "Birds of a Feather" quilt. I think the this one came out better.  One more I think and I can start putting it together.

 

Do you do charity quilts?  My next charity is also local, it will be Newborns In Need. I hope to make 3 quilts for this one since the quilts are 36" x 36".  I have orphan blocks from testers when the queen gives me her fabric and I don't want to ruin it.  This bee is with my WNY MQG they will give me 24 blocks, with my centers I will have 9 ~ 12.5 x 12.5" blocks for each quilt.  I am queen in September so that will be October! 

Connecting with Sew Fresh Quilts and Freshly Pieced WIP's is back this week, come check out some other blogs

 

Off to sew,

Pam