star quilt along, week 3

Welcome to week 3 of the star quilt along. 

This week's block is called Ohio Star.

cut 2 squares 5  1/4" from a medium or dark fabric

cut 1 square 4  1/2" from a medium or dark fabric

cut the 2 squares that measure 5  1/4"  in half on the diagonal twice to make a total of 8 quarter square triangles

cut 4 squares 4  1/2" from the background fabric

cut 2 squares 5  1/4" from the background fabric

cut the 2 squares that measure 5  1/4" in half on the diagonal twice to make a total of 8 quarter square triangles

layout as shown

and once it is sewn together, square it up to measure 12.5".

Any questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments.

Happy Quilting!

a quilt in a day, day 2

Today's quilt was inspired by this apron, which was ulitmately inspired by Lera, and her love for red & aqua, polka dots, gingham and cherries. (I share the same love for all those things, too.)

This quilt went together super quick. I already had the fabrics picked out, which helped. I started cutting and sewing after dinner, and I finished it up before bed.

The backing will be that sweet aqua cherry print and I'm thinking about red gingham bias binding. To me, this quilt screams "picnic quilt", so I just may have to make a bag to put it in, too.

The top measures 72" x 81". (That's going to be a whole lot of stippling.)

I'm pretty excited to see it all come together.

doing laundry is dangerous...

...because it gives me too much time to think about what I could be making.

I was pairing and folding socks and thought, what if I made a quilt top a day? How much fun would that be? I must have gotten the idea from Martha, who is making a piece of clothing a day.

I don't think that I will be able to make all the quilts back to back, but I hope to make a few each week. I will be starting my own little series here on the blog. So far I have 12 quilts on my list to (try to) do in a day. Each will be a simple design that I have been wanting to make for awhile. The goal is that all of them will use fabric from my stash, which is an added and maybe the only benefit to my hair-brained idea.

Here's the first one.

I started this one yesterday and finished it this afternoon.

It measures 51" x 66".

I think I had better stop doing laundry. Who knows what I will come up with next. :)

edit: since so many of you have asked, I thought I should add that this is not a pattern. It is inspired by Denyse Schmidt, but I pieced it all improvisationally.

setting blocks

Since several of you have asked, I am posting the instructions for the setting blocks for the star quilt along so you can work on them at your leisure. If you are making the quilt as shown, you will need 12 setting blocks.


cut 6 strips 2.5" x the width of fabric from a printed fabric
cut 6 strips 2.5" x the width of fabric from the background fabric

sew together using a quarter inch seam allowance

cut 2 1/2" segments

make four patches
you will need 4 four patches for each setting block, for a total of 48 four patches.

cut 4 squares 4 1/2" for each setting block from the background, for a total of 48 squares
cut 1 square 4 1/2" for each setting block from the printed fabric, for a total of 12 squares

layout as shown

sew together and square up the blocks to 12.5".

I think all those numbers are right. Let me know if you encounter any errors.
Happy quilting!

enough is enough

This afternoon I was sitting here trying to decide what to blog about. Then I thought, boy, I wish I was getting something done around here, quilt wise. I only finished sewing the quilt top together and basted it today. Only. Good grief.

I don't know if I should laugh at myself, cry or to check myself into therapy.

(For those of you who suggest therapy, please be gentle in your comments.)

star quilt along, week 2

Welcome to week 2 of the star quilt along.

Several of you have made the block for week 1 and it ended up measuring less than 12.5". If that happened to you, here are a few things to try.


First, sew a seam and measure it with a ruler. (double click on the image to see it larger.) It should measure exactly 1/4". If the seam is larger, your block will end up too small. Also, you will end up losing the points of your triangles. It does take some practice. When there are so many seams in one block, accuracy really becomes important. (Don't think that I have this perfected, I still have missing points in a few of my stars.)

If your seams are accurate, the next thing to check is your cutting accuracy.

There is an alternative to this. If you really don't want to worry about the accuracy, you can add white borders around your blocks to make them a uniform size and choose to set the block differently than in this particular star quilt. (Something along the lines of this quilt, do you see how the blocks float in the white?) That is one way around it. But I would encourage you to keep trying for the accurately sized block. It does get better with practice.

OK, so on to block 2...

cut one square 6 1/2" from a medium print fabric

cut one square 7 1/4" from the background fabric

cut it on the diagonal (twice) to make 4 quarter square triangles

cut 4 squares 3 1/2" from the background fabric

cut 4 squares 3 7/8" from a darker printed fabric (the contrast is important for the design of the star to stand out)

cut each of those squares in half on the diagonal to make 8 half square triangles

layout as shown



Sew together and square it up so it measures 12.5".

Once you are done, you can add your photos to the flickr group here.

If you have questions, I will attempt to answer them in the comments.

using up every last bit

This morning I sewed up these cards made up of fabric scraps and card stock.

They are so much fun to make.
I love how they use up the skinny strips that are too thin to use for anything else.

These pink ones will be making their way to a good friend who loves pink.


And a new puppy, Daisy, came to live at our house. We love her! Thanks Linda!

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

what's going on

Lots going on here=one very tired mama.

I am working on quilting this quilt for Heather. This is still part of our trade off-babysitting for quilting. She pieced the top. Isn't it fantastic? I love the blues and aquas. It's the same pattern as this quilt.

We have a little girl in our house that turned 2 on Tuesday. She got a cold for her birthday. :(

I have 2 more quilts in the queue which are basted and ready to quilt.

I am doing some summer wardrobe planning for my little girl. Dresses like this. Bloomers that I want to try from this tutorial.

And my husband has been working some crazy long hours, so I've been on single parent duty for a few nights a week lately. Ugh.

What's going on at your house today?

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Also, I added the names to the list for the quilt along. If yours isn't there, please send me an email or leave me a comment to let me know so I can add it. I tried to add each name, but I may have inadvertently missed someone. Thanks to all of you who already signed up and for your enthusiasm.

star quilt along, week 1

Welcome to week one of the star quilt along.

A few items of business before we get started with our block for today:

-The quilt top is 85" square.

-It consists of 12 setting blocks and 13 star blocks.

-Each block is 12.5" unfinished, resulting in a 12" finished block.

-A quarter inch seam allowance is used throughout the project.

-About the fabric: for the background, I would buy around 6-7 yards for this project. I haven't kept track of how much I have used for this quilt, but if you are worried about running out, get a few extra yards. Buy something you love, so if you have tons extra, you can use it for another project. I used quilters only cotton from JoAnn's in the color parchment. (I buy nearly a bolt at a time.) For the pink parts of the quilt I used fabrics from my stash. Fat quarters and fat eighths work well for these pieces. For the setting blocks, I used at least a yard of fabric, but less than 2 yards.

Now on to our block...

cut one square 7 1/4" from the background fabric

cut it in half diagonally twice, making quarter square triangles

cut one square 3 7/8" from the background fabric
cut six squares 3 1/2" from the background fabric

cut five squares 3 7/8" from the colored fabric

take one square background fabric and mark a line in pencil from one corner to the other. pin that background fabric to a colored square of fabric, right sides together. sew two seams- one on either side of the pencil line using a quarter inch seam.

cut apart on the pencil line.

press open and this will form 2 squares

take the remaining 4 squares of colored fabric, cut them in half on the diagonal

to make 8 half square triangles

layout as shown

I added a few close up shots on how to sew this segment together. This will also be used in several future blocks in the quilt along.








Square up your block-trim to exactly 12.5". This is an important step, so later, when you are assembling your blocks, they will all match in size. This makes the assembly of the quilt much easier.

If you have any questions, I will attempt to answer them in the comments section.

If you are joining in, leave me a comment, and I will add your name to the sidebar and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Thanks for quilting along with me.