Stitchin At Home: Star Blocks

Showing posts with label Star Blocks. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Virtual Cookie Exchange 2021

Welcome to the Virtual Cookie Exchange and blog hop hosted by Carol at Just Let Me Quilt. This is my favorite blog hop of the year, who doesn't like to see new ideas and swap recipes for Christmas yummies and projects.

The recipe I am sharing this year is for a Gingerbread Mug Cake. I like gingerbread but with only me to eat it, my waistline would not appreciate it. I have been trying different recipes and tweaking them to my liking. Serves one, just my size.

getting ready to make my mug cake, an essential item is a microwave-safe mug

Gingerbread Mug Cake

4 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 tablespoon Dark Brown Sugar

3 tablespoons Milk

1/2 tablespoon Canola Oil, or other neutral oil

1/2 tablespoon Dark Molasses

1/8 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger

Pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a microwave-safe mug. Use a fork or small whisk to mix until smooth.

Microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute until just set.

Cool and Enjoy. Allow to cool slightly, top with whipped cream if desired!

ready to enjoy, I was out of whipped cream but it was still good

This year's Christmas project didn't go as planned. I picked out fabrics and designed a block.

turquoise fabric pull

I made one block of what was to be 20 and had ~~second~~ , okay lots of thoughts one being was I completely crazy. The block has more inset seams than I care to even think about.

inset seams

and just look at all those inset seams

The quilt would look stunning in my humble opinion.

EQ mockup I do love the secondary pattern the blocks form

And here is where reality came in, this was going to be a lot of work and oh yeah require an awful lot of patience to make 19 more blocks.

I think one of these blocks is plenty

I am rethinking how to use the one block I did make and incorporate it into a new quilt idea. As a result, I do not have a finished project. Yes I could have made it into a pillow, but I'm not sure I really want to do that.

Take a little time to visit the other blogs and pick up some more recipes for some sweet treats and Christmas projects.

Saturday, 28 September 2019

Squirrels Happen

Have you ever started a project without a plan in mind? It starts out innocently enough. In this case I made an eight pointed star. Simple enough, right? You can read more about my favourite quilt block which are stars here.

two of six drawers of FQ's

I am trying to use some of the FQ's I have. I do have a healthy collection, and they look so nice in all there glorious colours. But they need to be used not just collected.

purple was the choice of the day

Now as tends to happen with a squirrel one gets so involved that the camera is totally forgotten as you make the magic begin to happen. A square here a triangle there and before you know it you are looking at, if the stars have aligned correctly a project you are happy with. Of course there may have been a little oops, nothing mr jack couldn't fix.

a little turning of the blocks and all is fixed

I would like to make it bigger as it is currently only 36'' x 36''. I may be forced to go buy some fabric. I know having to buy fabric, how rough can it get. The current thought is to add a solid purple border to it.

amazing what a few fat quarters can grow up to become

I'm working on writing the pattern for this.

Have you ever made a quilt without a pattern?

I am linking up to Dreami #32 over at mmm! quilts.

Tuesday, 10 September 2019

My Favourite Quilt Block Hop

Thanks to Carla from Creatin' in the Sticks for running this fun hop.

It was an easy decision as to what block I would be showing you today, Star blocks hands down. I like all stars the LeMoyne Star or Eight Pointed Star, the Ohio Star, Sawtooth Star, Friendship Star to name just a few.

Star blocks are one of the most common patterns used in quilts. They are by far my favourite block.

Shall we look at a few.

Ohio Star

The Ohio Star is a nine-patch block made of quarter-square triangles around a central square, the Ohio Star block is a lovely quilt block.

North Star or Sawtooth Star block

North Star one of the oldest block patterns. It’s been published by many pattern companies under many names, including Aunt Eliza’s Star or Variable Star, over the past 120 years or so. Today’s quilters often call it Sawtooth Star.

LeMoyne or the Eight pointed Star

The LeMoyne Star or Eight Pointed Star dates back from 1834 - 1859. The block can be made a couple different ways the traditional pieced using diamonds and y-seams. Or using HST's a much simpler version.

Some quick instructions for an Eight Pointed Star.

Cutting Instructions for 12'' Eight Pointed Star.

Background Fabric

Cut 4 – 3 1/2'' squares for the corner pieces

Cut 4 – 4 3/8'' squares for the half square triangles

Star Fabric #1

Cut 4 – 4 3/8'' squares for the half square triangles

Star Fabric #2

Cut 4 – 4 3/8'' squares for the half square triangles

Make 4 HST's using two background squares and two of star fabric #1.

Draw a line diagonally on the back of a the background fabric. Place on top of star fabric #1 with right sides together. Sew a 1/4'' on both sides of the drawn line. Cut diagonally on the drawn line. Press. Trim to 3 1/2'' by 3 1/2''. Make 4.

Repeat using two fabric #2's and the background fabric.

Repeat using one each of the star fabrics. Make 4.

Arrange as per the photo of the Eight Pointed Star above.

I call this one Star Points I'm sure it probably has other names as well. I designed this for my guilds BOM this year.