Friday Night Sew In

I did manage to do a bit of sewing this weekend, so I do have something to show for my Friday Night Sew In report.  Yay!  I am finding it difficult to get any sewing done these days.  But I keep trying.

For Friday Night Sew In this month I completed my December Canadians Quilt block for Lisa.  Better late than not at all....  Edited to add - the tutorial for this block came from blossom heart quilts blog

I also spent lots of time outside this weekend.  Our temperatures are hovering around 0 C.  So warm! It looks like spring in my little town.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and got some sewing done!  Please go to Wendy's blog to see what others accomplished for FNSI.

Janet 

Wonky Star Block Tutorial for my Canadians Quilt Bee Buddies

Let me start by saying that I did not invent the wonky star block.  It has been around for a long time and you may have made one in the past.  This tutorial is not original – I read quite a few before I made my block and was influenced by others methods.  I do need to give a shout out to Jane at Jane's Fabrics blog as she demonstrated one part of the method that I liked and used.  I’ll let you know when we get there. 

I also have to say that my block idea is not original.  I took a look at the link that Lisa provided to Stash Bee’s post on fun blocks to use and I really liked the look of one by Jolene from Blue Elephant Stitches blog.  I don’t have her permission to copy the photo of the quilt but you can see it here.

So I would like you to make me a 12.5 inch (12 inch finished) Wonky Star block.  I would like you to use colour.  I love colour.  Please don’t use solids or tone on tone fabrics.  Please don’t use anything that is predominantly black, white or brown, although it is fine to have these colours in a fabrics that is predominantly some other colours. 

Here is my pile of fabric as I played around figuring out what I was going to use.

In the end I decided on these two…

The one on the top is Silent Cinema by Jenean Morrison from Westminster fabrics.  I loved this line when it came out and bought a few different colour ways of the different fabrics, but I haven’t used it much.  The one on the bottom from Art Gallery Fabrics Sugar Collection and is called Feel the Difference.  It is my favourite fabric right now and I am always wanting to use it.  Good thing I bought a few meters of it. 

Enough rambling.  Here’s how to make the Wonky Star block.  Cut eight 4.5 inch blocks from whichever fabric you are going to use for the background and five 4.5 inch blocks from whichever fabric you are using for the star.

Cut four of the star fabric blocks in half diagonally – only four, leave the fifth one intact.

Place four of the background blocks out right side up and place four of the star triangles right side down on the blocks like so…

You notice that they are all different?  This is what will make the star wonky. 

When you are laying your triangles out flip them over to see how they will look once sewn to make sure you like how they look.

One of my blocks was problematic because when I flipped it over it looked like this… Do you see how far to the left the yellow fabric is on the bottom. This did not make for an attractive point on the star.

Another one was a problem because when the yellow was flipped over it did not completely cover the 4.5 inch block. 

Sew across the long edge of the triangles using a 1/4 inch seam.  Press the star fabric open.

Now place your second set of four triangles face down on the four blocks like so…  flip the triangles over so that you will see what they look like once sewn again.  This will prevent having to do any reverse sewing. 

Sew again along the long sides of the triangles using a 1/4 inch seam and press open.

Now this is the part that I got from Jane.  You notice that we didn’t trim any of the background fabric before adding the second triangle.  Now you can flip the blocks over – wrong side up – and use the original block as a guide to trim back the star points.

Trim all four star point squares to 4.5 inches then use your small scissors to cut away the excess background fabric.  I don’t know if this is really easier and if you are an accomplished wonky star maker and want to do it the other way, well please do. 

Lay out your nine squares thusly, putting the squares with the star points in a pleasing arrangement.

Sew the rows together, using a 1/4 inch seam. 

Press the two outside row seams out to the side blocks and press the middle row toward the middle block.  This will allow the seams to nest when sewing the rows together which is the last step.  Eh voila!!

A wonky star block!  I can’t wait to see what wonderful colours my peeps in the Canadian Quilt bee come up with.

Janet

Friday Night Sew In Report

Well Friday night was pretty well a bust for me.  I was exhausted after a long week at work and other than about fifteen minutes working on the layout for my Spring themed postcard for Sheila, I did nothing even slightly related to sewing. 

But the whole week wasn’t a wash-out…  I put together one flower using the second round hexies I received from Jenny for February in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap…

And I made these blocks for Lisa from Saskatchewan for the Canadians Quilt Bee.  I love these + and x blocks – they are so much fun to make.

And yesterday my friend Linda P. and I went to a class where we got detailed instruction on how to make the Sew Together bag (pattern by Sew Demented).  The pattern was duly purchased from Craftsy where you can purchase it too if you want to make yourself one of these beautiful babies!

Here is my completed bag.  Notice FOUR zippers (three inside pockets and the outer zip), full binding, a little pin cushion, and there is also a needle keep on the opposite inside wall.

I know…. my fabric choices are bright and busy, but It turned out beautiful.  And I have been wanting to use the Love Bird fabric in something for a long time.   

As you can see it is lovely and sunny here these days and our snow is melting.  I must get a new photo for my header…

I hope the snow is melting for you too - especially if you live in Eastern Canada.  I must be off and finish that postcard as it needs to be in tomorrow’s mail.

Janet

Home again

We had our last morning in Hawaii on Monday and an exciting morning it was.  There were a group of whales – Humpbacks go there in January to March to breed and calve – in closer to shore than any we had seen previously.  We did see them everyday we were in Hawaii.  This day we had a fantastic view of them and we were convinced that there was a female giving birth. 

My camera only has 6x zoom… We figured they were about 400 yards out and we had a very good look at them through the binoculars.

Then there were about 50 turtles feeding and we again got to look at them up close – like a couple of feet away. 

And I know I said I wasn’t going to show the dead fish, but this is too intriguing… Two days out and the fish is shrinking as the crabs feast on it…

I had a day off work when we got home.  I planned it that way as I knew I had to sew a block for the 2015 Canadians bee swap.  This is a Bonnie Hunter block and the original tutorial for it is found here http://quiltville.blogspot.ca/2005/06/scrappy-mountain-majesties.html

Our bee bunny of the month wanted bright modern fabrics paired with low volume.  Hopefully I did it right. She asked that we not sew the four pieces together as she wanted to play with layout.   I love how it looks.

I have to make two Valentine’s postcards this weekend so I’m lined up to sew…  What do you have planned for your weekend?

Janet