Orange Star Dance Blocks

I've sewn the 8 orange Star Dance blocks for September. These little stars will finish at 4".

There are many shades of orange in this group.

And a picture of all the Star Dance blocks so far.

See what other people have sewn for Scrap Happy Saturday. Also linking to Show Off Saturday.

Miss Rosie's Cake & Cupcake Recipes

Several months ago, at a guild meeting, Elaine gave a demonstration using Miss Rosie's Cake & Cupcake Recipes. After she finished, she handed each of us a recipe packet with fabrics enclosed for us to sample. She told us we could bring back the finished blocks and she would sew them into charity quilts.

Since she had extra packets, I took 2 cupcake recipes and 3 of the cake recipes. I didn't realize at the time that each cake recipe makes 2 blocks.

Here are my blocks. 

First the cupcakes. These blocks were made using 5" charm blocks. You can choose between 3 different patterns using the recipe. For these fabrics, I chose to make pattern 1.

This is my favorite of the 2 cupcakes I made. The cupcake blocks finish at 6".

I chose this pattern for the 2nd block. 

I purposely try to avoid direction fabric when making HST's. It bugs me when lines to don't run the same direction. Oh well.

Now for the cakes. These blocks were made using 10" square fabrics (or layers cakes). I could choose between 6 different patterns for these blocks.

I've always wanted to try a T block, so now I've made 2 T's , a light T and a dark T. The block with the darker T looks smaller but they're the same size.

This floral was so pretty with the purple fabric. I made them both the same. This block reminds me of baskets of flowers.

The last 2 blocks remind me of bear claws, a dark one and the reverse. Again the lines don't run the same direction and the block with the darker print in the center looks smaller but it's not!

The Cake blocks measure 6-3/4" finished.

What's my opinion of these recipes? They were OK, it was nice to try them but I'll never buy the recipes (patterns). 

The recipes are similar to HST papers but they include the squares for you to cut. 

Today, September 29th, Missouri Star & Quilt Co. has Cake Mix Recipe #2 as their Daily Special.

Linking to - Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday

Simple 9-Patch Flimsy

Many years ago, I pieced the center of this quilt. I was trying to reduce the fabric stash, didn't happen. 

The quilt center laid around here for years, I never could decide what fabric to use for the border.

I had errands to run in Shipshewana one day this summer. I took the pieced center along, stopped at Yoder Department Store and showed my problem to my friend Nancy. 

She took one look at the center and said Kansas Troubles. We walked over to the shelf of Kansas Troubles fabrics and she pulled out approximately 10 bolts for me to peruse. I decided on one of the lovely reds. 

During the rainy week several weeks ago, I sewed the borders on the center. Now she is a finished flimsy and I don't even have to quilt her!! She will be hand quilted and donated to a fund raising auction for the school my Pennsylvania grands attend.

Yes, another project crossed off the list!

Linking to - Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Quilter's Monday,  Fiber Tuesday, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday, Show Off Saturday

Blue Squares Quilt

Another small quilt I quilted last week was Blue Squares that I pieced in July using 10" squares. He was fast and easy to piece.

I need the rush of some completed projects after the stress of piecing that last Nearly Insane block, so, after finishing the quilting on Circle of Squares, I pinned Blue Squares and quilted him.

He got simple straight line quilting. The lines are approximately 1" apart. I'm not going to stress out about not perfectly straight lines. He measures 54" x 56". In a perfect world, he would have been square but within 2 inches, that's close enough.

I added a white flange to the binding to add some zing!

For the backing fabric, I used the last of mom's border fabrics. There wasn't enough fabric so I pulled these other blocks from the leftover block box. 

Another charity quilt finished, too large for a crib quilt but too small for a throw. Hopefully he will go to the right person and be a perfect fit for them.

Linking to - Quilter's Monday, Fiber Tuesday, Sew Some Love, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday, Free Motion Mavericks, Show Off Saturday

Circle of Squares Quilted

The big baler wasn't available to bale earlier this week and now we are having several days of rain and drizzle. Definitely not haymaking weather so plenty of time for sewing.

I had been undecided about how to quilt the Circle of Squares quilt that I pieced in June for the RSC. I tentatively thought I would do spiral quilting but that just didn't seem right. After I read the post by Roseanne about quilting of Irish Chain (9-Patch), I knew how I was going to quilt her.

I did a little preliminary work before starting the quilting. 

First I marked a X on the quilt then a +. The + was so I would know where the pivot point was supposed to be. 

I think it helped. I quilted the quilt in 4 sections, trying to do a section a day. She turned out very nicely. She measures 44" x 45" and will make a lovely baby quilt.

I didn't have enough of either of the larger pieces of yellow or flowered yellow fabric to use entirely for the backing but I had a lot of the checkerboard blocks leftover from the front of the quilt. It worked!

Linking to - Free Motion Mavericks, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished Or Not Friday, TGIFF,  Finish It Up Friday, Let's Make Baby Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday, BOM'S Away, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Show & Tell Monday, LoveLaughQuilt, Em's Scrapbag, Fiber Tuesday, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, Sew Some Love

Nearly Insane

And I just about did go Insane! The farmer put off hay making for a week so after I pieced as much as I could of 9-Patches & Baskets, I decided to work on Nearly Insane.

These blocks finish at 6" and there are 9 blocks in this diagonal row.

Back in July, before things got really busy, I had pieced these 4 blocks.

They weren't very complicated and went together easily.

Now the blocks that were pieced in August.

Another straight forward block. Sometimes it's hard for me to envision what the block will look like. I wish now I would have put the lighter fabric in the corners instead of the darker fabric but, it's too late. Unless there is a big problem, I don't redo blocks.

This was an easy block, simple to piece. She's just a quiet, simple, troublefree block. 

This block is interesting because the on point corners are at the edge of the block. It looks like I made a mistake because there is no seam allowance left. That's the way it is supposed to be. When the block is sewn into the row, the points are cut off. Look for this block in the picture of the flimsy at the end of the post.

This block is my favorite block of the row. I don't mind set in seams. Wouldn't this star look great as a center medallion in a larger quilt?

This block, #75, just about put me over the edge to Insanity! There were 185 pieces. I can't believe how many errors and mis-cuts I made with this block. It took me 3 days to piece her! She's finally finished and I know she's not perfect but I   don't care, she is NOT going to be remade. Finished is better than perfect.

The quilt top progress so far. Click on the picture to enlarge. I am making the quilt in two sections. The bottom two rows (right diagonal) are not attached to the to body. 

The corner pieces for the center row are pieced and ready to be attached after the the 2 sections are sewn together.

There are 4 more diagonal rows to piece. Each row decreases by 2 blocks so the next row will have 7 blocks. I'm hoping to have the center section pieced by the first of November.

Linking to - Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away, Quilter's Monday, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Sew Fresh Quilts, UFO Progress, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday, Show Off Saturday