Slow Stitching Sunday

In all that tidying I was doing these last couple of months, I came across a table runner that needed quilting. I created this out of some orphan blocks and though it would look nice to incorporate into fall decor. The stars were made when I was just playing around with fabrics on a random day when I was probably procrastinating about something. Check out this post.

You can see from the date on that post that these stars have taken up space in my quilting room since 2018 - good grief! It needs finishing! At some point since then, I made and added the setting block, and I put the quilt sandwich together. Finally, it is nearly done.The hand quilting is nothing fancy or precise. I was not too concerned about marking lines; I eyeballed it. Just getting the job done. It's the most basic quilting ever. It will soon be time to trim it down and apply the binding. Perfect project for when I'm watching baseball on television.

 

For awhile this spring - in the past two months since we've been back from Florida - I have had an overwhelming feeling of too many unfinished little projects that, if finished, would be stored somewhere else besides stacked in my quilting room. I needed to deal with these little projects. And several have been dealt with, I can happily report. I share a few of them in this post. Since then, I've done another one, which I will share in an upcoming post. Now this table topper. What a satisfying feeling to be finishing off more little projects.

 Don't inspect the stitching too closely! Remember, done is better than perfect, right? I am going to have this one out of my view and another finish to check off my list. Hooray.

I will add my table topper to the slow stitching project party over at Kathy's Quilts.  She has a fun, yet incredibly telling graphic to begin today's post. The flow chart of project completions (!) is spot on. I love starting projects; finishing is another matter.

Oh well. Today, I am one step closer to finishing this table topper.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

 

 

 

9.5" Ohio Star Blocks

I find myself in a curious spot at the moment in which I don't have any particular quilting deadlines to meet and no definite plan to start anything soon.

The hustle-bustle of Christmas is taking top priority along with finishing off the semester at OU-C.

Yesterday, I felt compelled to create a little something, though, so I secluded myself upstairs in my sewing room and came up with two Ohio Star blocks. I found a pattern that made a 9.5-inch block, and I knew it would come together quickly.

As is generally the case, the most difficult part is deciding which fabrics to use! The cutting is simple and only a few parts are necessary for this block.

Doing a star in Christmas colors was a no-brainer. I made the quarter-square triangle blocks with 4.5-inch squares (2 red, 1 green, 1 white) and I like how the resulting block turned out.

After finishing this block, I had the idea to make another Ohio Star, but use just two fabrics rather than three - just to see how it would look.

I'm calling this colorway 'Butterscotch" as it reminds me of those yummy Werther's hard candies. This look pleases me as much as the first. Ohio Star blocks are hard to be dissatisfied with, apparently.

I played around with a photo editing app on my phone and came up with the following pictures which show what an entire quilt of these blocks will look like. This is fun to do once a block picture has been cropped close.

I took the single block and made a 9x9 collage using an app called Layout (I use the free version for iPhone.). The photo below shows 81 stars. I did this by using the 9x9 photo in a new 9x9 collage. This allows me to get an idea of what a full size quilt of this block would look like. I sometimes cannot visualize the end result, so this helps immensely.

I did the same thing with the Christmas block. Check it out.

Doing this Christmas version reminded me of a quilt I made in 2015 that looks amazingly similar. See if you don't agree. The main difference is that the stars actually share points. I will have to pull this quilt out and measure the blocks. I am curious as to the size of the block parts and how it compares to what I made yesterday.

Now you know how I entertained myself for an afternoon. I'm pretty easily entertained, wouldn't you agree? Next, I must turn my attention to several dozen rough drafts which have found their way to my inbox. We are in the homestretch for this semester. Yay!

Happy Quilting, Friends!