Wednesday, February 22, 2012

BLOCK NO. 3 - EIGHT HANDS AROUND

Cutting instructions:
INNER STAR:
Center square:  Cut one 3-1/2" square
Corner squares:  Cut four 2" squares
Flying Geese background:  Cut four rectangles 2" x 3-1/2"
Star points:  Cut eight 2" squares

LARGE OUTSIDE STAR:
Background fabric:
Cut two 4" squares
Cut four rectangles 3-1/2" x 6-1/2"
Star Fabric:
Cut two 4" squares
Cut eight 3-1/2" squares

Inner Star Flying Geese  and Large Outside Star construction:
Mark each of the eight 3-1/2" squares and eight 2" squares diagonally from corner to corner.  This will be the sewing line.  We will make these using the connector square method.  Be sure they form the V shape. While we are marking, mark the Large Outside Star corner squares diagonally and sew 1/4" on each side of the diagonal line (I used my QuikQuarter ruler and marked the sewing lines, but you can use either method):



The above shows 1/2 of the flying goose completed and the corner squares.  The corner squares will need to be squared up to 3-1/2" (you should only have a sliver to trim off).  Complete the flying goose by sewing the other 4 squares the same as the first.
All the parts are made.  Lay your block out as follows:
Piece the inner star first as shown above.  And, viola, the block is finished:

Just a note.  Pressing (NOT IRONING) is important.  This is how my block looks on back.

I hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am!!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Butterfly Wings Finished!

Well -- finished except for the hand stitching the binding to the back but my good friend, Nancy, is going to do that for me.  So that makes two of my quilts in the finished category this year.


Yep, I took all the pebbling out that I had started on this quilt and did the grid backgrounds instead.  And here is my label:

One quilt finished per month.   Can I do this for the rest of the year????  

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Trip to Backyard Fabrics and IT'S SNOWING!

Wednesday, after guild, we went to Backyard Fabrics in Murray, KY.  Had a great time as usual.  I bought these fabrics and had a quilt in mind, but now I'm thinking of something else to do with them.
I found these two background fabrics in my stash that coordinate with them.  Now what to do????

Browns and pinky-salmon colors.  They don't show very well here. 
And - surprise this morning -- it is snowing. 


Views from our front door and back door.  This is probably all we will get but the ground is "almost" covered.