Simple Star

 

I am always thrilled with how simple and beautiful a basic 12 inch star block is.  It always makes me want to do an entire quilt.  

These will be used for a Christmas themed quilt I am working on but they are so beautiful, I thought I would share it with you.  Such an easy pattern for any quilting ability level.  

The center square measures 6.5 inches. 

I was tempted to use this as a foundation for a bunch of gold and yellow strings but opted for a simple solid yellow for the entire star.  

You will need to cut 4 corner squares of the blue 3.5 inches.  

The star points are a flying geese unit.  Blue 3.5 X 6.5 with Yellow squares cut at 3.5 inches, then mark the diagonal and sew.  

 

You end up with 4 lovely flying geese units.

Sew two of these to the opposite sides of the center square, making sure you sew through the cross point.  Then sew the blue corners to the opposite ends of the two left over flying geese units.  Then assemble.  

One width of fabric of my blue gave me all I needed for one block.  

Hope you enjoy sewing this lovely star if you choose to do so.  I would love to see what you make!  

Here is a peek at another new project I started.  It is from my husband's old jeans, my stash of ribbon, and machine embroidery- Design from Sweet Pea.  It will end up being a tote bag someday.  I only make a block or two a day and I need 16 before I can start assembling it.  And it has to take its turn with about 100 other projects....

Happy October!

Scrappy Project started

Today, after perusing Pinterest for ideas for scrappy star quilts, I sat down and created this pattern in EQ7.  It is a 16 inch block using 2.5 strips and 4 & 7/8 inch squares for the triangles.

I have to give all the basic design credit to Amber at GiGi's Thimble.
http://www.gigisthimble.com/2012/06/scrap-jar-stars-quilt-done.html- though her block is much smaller and I am setting mine a little differently.  Her quilt is beautiful!

My quilt will be 9 blocks (3X3) and will have two borders.  I think it will finish at around 88 inches square.

I am trying to cut most of my stash into 2.5 inch strips and 5 inch squares so my patterns must use those sizes.  Its the only way I have come up with to try to tame my stash that is OUT OF CONTROL! I have a large number of autumn themed and colored fabrics so this one is all oranges, brown, green, gold and burgundy on a variety of neutral backgrounds.

Here are the strips I am using with the main neutral though I ended up using 4 different ones.

Today I got the 9- 16 patch blocks for the stars finished and the 4- 16 patch all color blocks for the corners of the outer border. There are many more four patches ready to go- even more than will be used in the quilt.  I also got the corner squares of the blocks finished and my half square triangles are ready to sew, with diagonal lines drawn.
I can't believe how much progress I made on this quilt today.  From planning to about half way put together in about 5-6 hours.