Crazy workload notwithstanding, I couldn’t resist stitching the beginning of my very colourful Hunter’s Star quilt. There are some other design elements I have planned for this that will make it even more fun and colourful. I haven’t stitched it in the normal fashion as I wanted to see how it was going to look with the idea I had been playing with in EQ. While I hand pieced this first section, I can definitely see machine piecing at least parts of the rest of it makes sense.

The back after pressing. I haven’t yet graded the seams, but will before I add any more to this beginning. I know better than to leave this to the end of a project. That lesson I’ve learned the hard way more than once.

I knew I couldn’t resist once the collections came out. Ever since I knew the Inklingo Hunter’s Star collections were coming, as mentioned in my post on October 5, 2012, I’ve been playing with this idea. When the page size for one of the combo pages to print on fabric was mentioned in a post on the All About Inklingo blog a week or so ago, I got my fabrics ready. And once I downloaded the collections, I had 20 pieces of fabric printed with one of the combo pages in a matter of minutes.

Getting the fabrics ready to print couldn’t be simpler. Iron washed fabric to freezer paper, feed the fabric through an ordinary inkjet printer and in seconds there they are – perfect shapes with stitching lines, matching points and more. I took this photo before I fed one of the pieces of fabric through the printer.

This shot is of a different pink fabric after printing and, because I was so excited about getting started, after I had cut out one of the diamonds and one of the trapezoids from that sheet. I forgot I wanted to take a picture of the sheet before I’d cut the pieces out.

There are three sizes of Hunter’s Star – 6″, 9″ and 12″ – and an absolutely fantastic design book full of stitching tips and design ideas. The design book is free for a limited time and is well worth downloading. The stitching tips and design ideas are a great addition to anyone’s library.

The colourful Hunter’s Star is being made with the 9″ collection. I can’t wait to play with the shapes in the 6″ collection – those .75″ diamonds are absolutely calling out to me. And the 12″ collection is the one I would use to make a two-colour quilt, which is something I’m mulling over. There are many design ideas flying around in my mind right now, but until I get through the workload this week I can’t play as much as I’d like. While I’m working today, I have a feeling thoughts of possible fabric combinations for a two-colour quilt are going to be trying to distract me.

So far I’ve made a blue and white quilt, a red and white, a pink and cream and have a deep red and white one on the go. I’ve often thought I’d like to do a yellow and white, a green and white and maybe, just maybe, a black and white one. If you were planning  a two-colour quilt, what would your colour choices be?

Baxter’s getting ready for the World Series.

He has been spending a lot of time on the windowsill or in his kitty tree watching out the window. The window washers are getting close and he seems fascinated. I’m really curious to see how he reacts to them if he happens to be in his kitty tree when they  do our windows.