EPP Fussy Cut Stars

Throughout 2014 I was following Temecula Quilt Co's posts Fussy Cut Fridays & just loved the variety of stars being produced. Being a huge fan of EPP I finally succumbed in September & started making stars from my stash of Civil War reproduction fabrics.

I also loved the setting they used & decided to follow the same pattern for joining my stars together. You only need two shapes for this pattern,  2inch 60 degree diamonds &  4inch hexagons. (measurements taken on the side of the shape)
Here's a few of my favorites so far:

I'm loving how this top is all coming together & already looking forward to hand quilting it when it's done.

So far all the stars are different & I've now exhausted my own repro stash, so, in order to have more variety I have purchased the odd 1800 remnant bag or two from Homestead Hearth. These bags are such good value & full of decent size scraps in a great mixture of fabrics which are perfect for making these stars.

The top is gradually growing to a decent size, hoping to make this large enough with a good drape for a double bed.

FQS Mystery BOM 2014

These days it's rare that I go for full fabric ranges as I prefer to mix it all up but one range that caught my attention last year was the Designer BOM by the FQS using the the lovely Snowbird range by Edita Sitar.

I love blue, polka dots & stars, so how could I resist joining this BOM?

I'm now caught up with the blocks all of which were constructed using my 1929 Singer Treadle machine. Here they are in order:

Block 1 - designed by Edita Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts

Block 2 - designed by Karla Eisenach, Susan Kendrick & Lisa Burnett of Sweetwater

Block 3 - designed by Bonnie Olaveson of Cotton Way & Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms

Block 4 - designed by Sandy Gervais of Pieces from My Heart

Block 5 - designed by Polly Minick & Laurie simpson of Minick & Simpson

Block 6 - designed by Vanessa Christenson of V and Co

Block 7 - designed by Joanna Figueroa of Fig tree Quilts

Block 8 - designed by Kate Spain

Block 9 - designed by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters

This last block is the centre block designed by Edita Sitar for the final layout as all the mystery blocks will be set on point surrounding this block. There are only 3 more to go before the whole top can be assembled so I eagerly await the next one.

This is the first BOM I have participated in via the FQS & can honestly say the patterns are very clearly written & printed in a nice booklet format. The fabric provided is more than enough to produce each block so there is extra for oops moments or even to make a second block. I will definitely be keeping an eye open for future BOMs on offer that may appeal.

Please note I have no affiliation with the Fat Quarter Shop other than being a very satisfied customer with their excellent service. :)

Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Foundation piecing Wild Geese & A Very Old UFO

This year I participated in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt along - Grand Illusion & decided to only work with fabric I already had in my stash, thus a different colour palette was used to Bonnie's

My fabric selection

Clue 1 underway using the trusty old treadle

I liked the main block created by all the units but the green sashing units just weren't doing it for me (too dark) so decided to go for plain cheddar sashing with friendship star cornerstones.

The nearly finished top - looking at this picture it needs another narrow border of the black to contain the stars on the edge. My "Inspired by Grand Illusion" is quite different from the Bonnie original which using the suggested colours looks fabulous, just google Grand Illusion mystery quilt & check out all the lovely photos.

Not wanting to waste 120 orphaned sashing units, I decided to convert them into 9 patches

Surround them with cheddar, geese & square in a square cornerstones. I hand drafted a foundation pattern for the geese to fit & used Bonnie's free pattern here for the cornerstones

Playing with a layout

1st 10 blocks together. 

Having finally got the hang of foundation paper piecing I was hooked & just couldn't resist having a go at some Wild & Goosey blocks everyone was playing with over on Quiltville's Open Studio

This pattern was originally published in Quiltmaker May/June ’13 issue under Bonnie Hunter's addicted to scraps column. The original pattern is for 3.5" units unfinished, I enlarged mine to 4.5" The PDF pattern can be downloaded from Quiltmaker here

This is a great pattern for using up tiny scraps but I decided to go controlled scrappy with this one & am still using fabric from the stash, mainly left overs from other projects

 

Now on a foundation paper piecing roll, I came across this fabulous site by Susan Gatewood who generously shares her foundation patterns for the Dear Jane quilt, so I dug out my very old UFO & decided to re-tackle this one. 

Row 1 so far

Current favourite block 

So, unintentionally, I have already started 2 new projects this year & revisited a UFO. I'm hoping to concentrate on existing WIP (works in progress) & in order to take stock I've created another page which also helps remind me I need to finish some of the older projects before starting more new ones.

Having said that, I find I am more productive by having so much variety to work with as I never get bored & they will all get finished in the end!

How many WIP's do you currently have and are there ones that will remain UFO's? What do you do with them if you really don't like them anymore? Would love to hear your views on this:)