Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Spinning Stars Quilt [First Block!]

Alright, tsk tsk, I completely skipped ahead and instead of cutting all my pieces like a good girl should...well I just decided that I had to actually sew a square together to get back into Spinning Stars.  My brain has been consumed by the twisting triangles nonsense that I couldn't get back into the groove!  So...even though I have to cut more Piece Bs and 18 more Piece Cs I went ahead and made a block with what I had anyway...  Pssht, it's my quilt right?  I can do what I want!

I am so glad I did because now I want to finish this quilt even more than when I originally started it!!!

Basically you sew the three pieces, A, B, and C, together to form a triangle.  Having had so much practice doing that with the twisting triangles this was really a piece of cake and a pleasure...ha...

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Triangle with Pieces A, B, C


And of course...two triangles together makes a square...

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Square
I was a little worried that I was really going to screw up this pattern.  But I am SO PROUD to report that I am rocking it!  As always, I ironed my seams.  I think every quilter has a step that they kind of fudge over...mine is squaring up my blocks...I just don't.  But when it comes to ironing the seams of my piecing I am completely faithful.  It always makes my life so much easier when it comes to lining up the seams with each other...

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Ironed Seams


And my anal inclination paid off because my points look perfect, if I do say so myself, and the seams line up perfectly...  I am not afraid to include this close up to prove it!

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Perfect Point and Lined Up Seams!


There I am...happily sewing along...all of my seams lining up...everything looking amazingly hunky dory for being sewn at 11pm after a long migraine day.  (not a cryptic catch phrase, I just literally had a migraine all day)  Look at how beautiful these center seams meet up in the middle of my block!

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Center Seams Lining Up


Yup, uh hunh, perfect...  Um...well almost...

Here is my block.  Notice anything amiss?

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Mistake Block


Well?  Anything?  Yeah...well...the green and yellow corners are supposed to alternate!  You know, the yellow corner should be diagonal from the other yellow corner!  Mental stomp around the room and wave fists around temper tantrum.  What I did in reality was roll my eyes to the ceiling and curse myself...but I'll spare you that here.

I had a choice.  Stop now or pull through.  Hmmm...I couldn't just seam rip the center seam because I actually would have to seam rip 2/3rds apart because the squares on one half needed to be flipped.  OR I could just make another 2 squares.  Eh, I figured I already have to make more blocks why not just head in that same direction?  So I did.

Here it is!  My First Finished Block for Spinning Stars!

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Spinning Stars Pink First Finished Block
At first I thought - hmmmm - maybe this Pink was not such a great choice.  But...then I placed the 1/2 block next to it and sure enough you can see how the yellow and green stars created by the outline of the pink are going to look.  I thought, wow, this is exactly what I hoped for!  The yellow and green shapes are going to set off the bright pink and really let the center fabrics shine.

Spinning Stars Pink Block & a Half
I feel so great.  I love that feeling of having just accomplished something major.  I really have to take a sewing break for a few days but I wanted to make some headway on this!  I have jewelry to create and ugh, there are more boxes to unpack and organize.  I'll be back for WIP Wednesday and something new I'm going to call Think Tank Thursday!  Come back to see...

- rebecca lynne

4 comments:

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

These are going to be fab! I love the way the stars are emerging.

Amorette said...

love these blocks, and this design! i never take enough time to look around for new block designs! i love your fabric choices too.

Annaliese said...

Came via the small blog meet... and so glad I did! I do a happy-skippy-dance when my points behave, too! Keep up the great work...can't wait to see it come together!

http://thepewteracorn.blogspot.com

Rachel at Stitched in Color said...

oooh, this looks like a tough design, but you are definitely rocking it. Thanks for encouraging me to visit!