Saturday, January 30, 2016

{Post 1,512} Triangle-Pieced Wonky Stars


Bonnie Hunter saves the day again.  On her blog, there is a tutorial for Maverick Stars that uses triangles to piece what I think of as wonky stars.  Click here to see it.  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/maverick-stars.html

Here is the result from yesterday and this AM:


I am a scrappy girl at heart.  My least favorite block is the top left original one.  All the background matches and all points are uniform.  My favorite is the bottom right...pieced center block with all different of everything.

I keep my tiny scraps in a shoebox-sized storage box under my desk.  I just throw the scraps in there when I have them.  These are very small pieces!  I figure I'll cut the 2-1/2" square centers from prints and outer squares from creams as I have them.  If all else fails, I'll cut off a bolt!  What???  Is that even possible, LOL.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

{Post 1,511} Alone Again and Still Tumbling


Yesterday I took my grandchildren back home.  It was a bittersweet time, for sure.  Their reunion with their parents was so sweet.  I consider it an honor to have had them.  I will miss the little nippers.  I rarely think to take pictures.  Just not wired that way.

I have been making major inroads in organizing my sewing room.  I found this box of irregularly-shaped triangles.  They are mostly from bindings that are sewn together at right angles.  Lots of them have the selvage fabric on one edge.

I have gone back and forth.  Pitch them?  Save them?  Donate them to someone else?  I just finished my Wild Goose quilt and gave it to my son recently.  That is what I used the other ones for, but I really did not want to make another one of those.



I made up one of these blocks this AM.  It will finish at 5" square.  It involves a LOT of precise cutting, which I would rather skip.  Is there a way to make wonky star blocks with triangles instead of squares or rectangles?  I really like this, but the construction is so time-consuming.  I am putting the box away until I hit upon a faster idea.


Here is a close-up of my tumbler quilt.  I will be adding 4" borders all around next, then piecing a backing and machine quilting this.  It measures 90" x 110" now and has 3,300 tumblers.  I will keep this one to use on one of our guest room beds.  We don't have many that are large enough.  

The close-up shows some of the details of the piecing and the wide genre of fabrics used.  Notice the middle row.  The brown tumbler on the far left is pieced from 2 of the same fabrics.  The one on the farthest right is Tigger in blue toile.  The one next to Tigger is cut down from a 4-patch.  There are Civil War prints, baby prints, I Spys, shirts, and anything one can imagine.


I am helping a friend with her son's rehearsal dinner for tomorrow night.  That means today is making cupcake picks, garlands, etc. as well as taking everything over for baking and cooking tomorrow.   

Praise the Lord for the strength to carry on!