Two of the nine pink and cream stars are made and I’ve sorted out a stitching sequence that makes them very quick to construct. The first part is to make the centre 8-pointed star.
Once that’s done then I stitch all the pieces that need to be stitched into pairs or triplets together. It’s then just a matter of adding rounds to the centre — a great opportunity for lots of continuous stitching which makes the star go together quite quickly.
This picture shows the centre after I added the first round of cream pairs and started adding the next round of pink diamonds. Everything is ready now to just keep stitching until the star is done. I’ve found that pressing after I get the third round of pink diamonds added is the most efficient. All that’s left after that is to add the final star points made up of the 2 cream and 1 pink diamonds, a final press and the star is finished. This will actually be a quick quilt to make as the setting is planned and won’t require a lot more work. As of now, I plan to use the sewing machine to join the blocks and sashing.
Monday night some time was spent sorting the stack of freezer paper sheets that were lying about that I use to print shapes on my fabric. As I use the custom sizes suggested in the various Inklingo collections, I have quite the variety of sizes of freezer paper cut ranging from 3.25″ x 5″ all the way up to 8.5″ x 14″ and, as freezer paper can be reused many times, I keep it. Over the past few months the stack of freezer paper sheets on my printer was becoming unruly, to say the least. So a few hours of organization, and I can now see at a glance if I have the size I need and find it easily. What started me organizing it was sorting out what I need to print for a couple of the projects I’m working on. After a few frustrating minutes of trying to figure out if I had the right sizes of freezer paper already cut, I realized it was time to just sit down and organize it all. Now the trick will be to keep it organized and file the sheets away after I’ve used them.
The gardeners have been and have taken out the flowers and cut down the hosta on the roof garden. The trees have lost most of their leaves now and it looks very stark. At least we haven’t yet had snow although there apparently was some snow to the north of us on the weekend. The cats are finding cozy spots to curl up and nap. First Lester.
Smudge:
Quilt Obsession 
Love those blocks! Thanks for sharing the process too. But I have to say it is unusual to hear that you will be using a sewing machine. Good for you. It is definitely getting cold here too. After being in Texas for a few days and being warm, this weather is down right cold. I feel like snuggling like Lester and Smudge.
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Heavens – it seems like only a short while ago you were talking about spring flowers, and now it’s nearly winter! The kitties have the right idea. That’s an interesting way to make stars, I would make each point as a whole diamond, join them into pairs, then the pairs into pairs, then join the two halves together.
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Very nice! Are you going to piece the stars with the background fabric or applique them to a backing? I could not quite tell if they were attached to the backing yet.
Those sure are cozy cats! Two of mine are outside and it’s in the 30’s. The other one is trying not to go outside, she’s the smart one!
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Thanks for the star tutorial Cathi – looks like you’re going to have some large squares of background – space for some fancy quilting.
I don’t use custom sizes of freezer paper. I only use 8.5×11 sheets. I should take some photos of my process and post it on my blog – it works very well for me and I don’t have to mess with strange sizes. I use about 12 sheets at a time – printing 6 at a time and when they loose their “hold” I throw them away and get 12 fresh ones. And I always “shrink” my paper before use – it really does shrink – iron it two times on a piece of muslin before use – check it with the original and it is indeed smaller after ironing.
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Using custom page sizes is a really efficient way to use freezer paper and fabric and speeds up the whole process.
Cathi
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Pretty blocks and a wonderful description on how you are stitching them together. I must admit I was surprised over the sewing machine comment too LOL.
Crispy
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The stars are so lovely! I’m thinking that Inklingo would make wonderful Lone Star and Broken Star quilts now too! A Isn’t it hard see the starkness of nature as winter comes on? Bleak and sad some days! Thank goodness we have bright fabrics and quilting to amuse ourselves during the next nine months of winter! After that nine months…a quilt will be born…except in your case…when I’m sure you’ll birth quintuplets! 😉 Happy stitching!
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