Oh My Lucky Stars!

In January of 2013, I decided to join in on the Lucky Stars BOM hosted by Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy. My experience with paper piecing had not been good. I'd tried it many years ago, pretty much trying to figure it out on my own {which was probably my first mistake}. My first paper pieced project was a very complicated Poinsettia wall quilt and although I finished it, I vowed to never paper piece again.

A couple of years ago, one of our talented local quilters, Marsha Bray, taught a paper piecing class for my guild. It's not your typical method, but one that uses freezer paper with no sewing through the paper and no tearing off the paper. I loved the method and dabbled a little bit.

The Lucky Stars quilt was the perfect opportunity for me to jump in with both feet! A monthly block was just enough to keep me going and I can now say that I can paper piece without reading Marsha's instructions! If any of you are local to St Louis, she teaches it at the Quilted Fox.

This week I put the last binding stitch on my quilt. Pretty proud of this one!

Love all the variations on the star...

Can I have a favorite? It's this one...

Twelve in all...

One of my favorite AMH prints on the back!

A year long quilt is a tough one for me. My color scheme changed as the year progressed. It turned out nothing like I had originally planned! But I think it came together well!

What can I paper piece next???

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My favorite things...

Have you been listening to the podcasts of Amy and April called Quiltcast? If not hop on over to the itunes store here. I've been listening to it as I take my walks in the mornings. The podcasts are full of great information and I feel like they're walking with me having a casual conversation about life and quilting and how to do both at the same time!

One of the features of the podcast is a top five - sewing supplies and sources of inspiration so far. I'm really enjoying that. Recently Camille listed her favorite supplies and I couldn't agree more with all her featured items. So in addition to all of those, I thought I'd share 5 of my favorites...

Disappearing marking pens ~ my favorite is Dritz because they seem to last longer than any others. I use the purple marker which disappears in a day or so to mark almost all my quilting. Obviously you can't mark the whole quilt unless you're going to quilt it pretty quick, but I just mark as I go and have found the purple lines to be really visible on almost every fabric.

My dry erase board ~ I started using this when I was writing my book as a way to stay organized and on track. I've since kept it up as a way remind me what I have going and what I may want to do next. Seems to be much too much to keep in my head!

Freezer Paper ~ I use it for hand appliqué, making templates that I then rotary cut around, and paper piecing. If you haven't tried it yet - the waxy side sticks to your fabric when you hit it with a dry iron, but the paper then pulls off cleanly. It's sold in most grocery stores {does anyone still use it for freezing?} Used it this weekend for my September Lucky Stars block!

I do a different method of paper piecing than most. The pattern is on freezer paper, but the pieces are not sewn directly to the paper. The paper pulls right off.

Quilt Pattern books ~ I have tons of quilting books, but these are my go-to favorites for finding new blocks, naming blocks and construction. I think between the three I have enough patterns to last a lifetime!

Bias Square ruler ~ My most frequently used specialty ruler! It's great for squaring up units of a block or blocks themselves up to 8". I love the clearly visible diagonal line and the fact that there's a solid line from each 1/8" marking to the diagonal. These 6" blocks came from Judy Hopkins book above and were squared up with my Bias Square!

I'm starting what will be a year-long project reminiscent of the Farmer's Wife quilt along and totally inspired by this gorgeous quilt. Stay tuned!

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Lucky Stars BOM progress...

Yeah me! I've kept on top of my Lucky Stars BOM patterns and the June block is done!

One of my problems with these year long projects is that I'm so flighty when it comes to color and fabric choices. I can't even remember the palette I started with ~ I've been foolishly adding and subtracting as I go.

So I thought it might be a good idea to look at my first six blocks together and see how things are developing. Goodness, the purply-pink was supposed to be an accent color and the green has almost disappeared. I've been pretty consistent with the navy ~ that's good. Looks like we need a bit more of that yellowy-green.

Stay tuned to see what happens next month!



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Lucky Stars and a winner!

First up, the winner of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine is Suzanne! I've sent you an email!

I did some catching up this weekend on my paper-pieced Lucky Stars blocks...

April...

And May...

I did change up the pattern a bit by piecing the center star in one fabric instead of two. I've been hoping to use this Field Study print and wanted it to make a bigger impact. This may be my favorite block so far!

. . . Cindy

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