The first test tumbling star block, which is what I’ve decided to call it for now anyway, was finished last night. There is no question about it — I’m making this quilt. I will do a couple more test blocks as I want to turn this into a small doll bed quilt or wall hanging and then I’ll get started on it in earnest once I get the fabrics I’ve decided on for it.

The back, after pressing and grading the seams.

There were a couple of questions yesterday about grading the seams. I learned to do this from Linda Franz when I was making my Quilted Diamonds quilt. When making any block and particularly a block that has a lot of little pieces and tons of seams, it makes a huge difference in the weight and drape of the quilt and prevents shadowing through. I usually grade the seams after pressing the block.

This is a pair of seam allowances before grading.

And this is a pair after.

Not much is clipped off – it’s just slightly thicker than a #12 sharp, which is a very fine needle.

I almost didn’t finish the tumbling star block because yesterday a new Inklingo collection was released. It’s called New York Wheel. It works with the other three New York Beauty collections and there are loads of variations and it’s just plain fun. I couldn’t resist. There’s going to be a Mystery Quilt starting, I think, next week that will be made using the NY Wheel. You can read about it and see some of the variations on this post on the All About Inklingo blog.

Within just a few minutes, I had fabric ironed on to freezer paper, which was then fed through the inkjet printer and I had all the shapes I needed for this first little quilt that I’m making with one of the variations.

This is the first quarter of the little quilt that makes me think of looking at a garden through a white picket fence.  The camera didn’t read the darker purple fabric well at all — it is a dark purple, not the deep blue or black it appears in the photograph. When I get the other 3 parts done and then have them all sewn together I will hopefully get a shot in daylight and the colours will be more true. Clearly, I’m sick of winter and ready for spring and flowers and green!

Looking at it now, I’m thinking I may change the floral I used for the bottom quarter circle to one that has mauve or purple in it. That I’ll decide tomorrow when I can look at it in natural light.

The back, after pressing and grading the seams.

Seems I’m not the only one who’s sick of winter. I think Baxter’s ready for some action out on the roof garden to watch.

He was on the windowsill for a while yesterday. It was raining and rather overcast but incredibly mild – so mild we had the windows open. Today we head back into the deep freeze for a few days.