I went on a little sewing retreat with the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild this weekend. I had a lot of fun and was very productive.
I made 50 tiny stars,
and finished the Crazy Love top for Jennifer Paganelli.
Thank you, Rossie, for suggesting the diagonal bands of color. The color bands help calm the chaos that was happening with all of these lively prints together.P is back at school today so I want to keep the productivity going. I'm off to the cutting table!
Today is a day to mark some milestones.
First, today is my four year "blogaversary". It is hard to believe that it has been four years since that very first blog post where I shared my recipe for "Little Red Hen Bread". The last four years have been quite a journey. I have "met" many wonderful people through this blog and have even met some of you in person! Thank you to all of you who continue to visit and leave comments for me. You really help keep me going.
Second, this is my 1000th blog post. One thousand! It's kind of hard to believe.
Third, I am halfway one fourth of the way to my tiny star goal.
Originally, I calculated that I would need about 500 star blocks for the quilt I have in mind. After a month of tiny piecing, I was thrilled to have made 250 stars. Thinking that I was just over half way, I recalculated to see exactly how many more I need. Well, I found that my original math was WAY off and I will need 1011 stars. So, I have many more to make. I will surely be needing to cut into some bigger pieces of solid fabrics to complete these stars. I've almost used up all of my small pieces.I'll let you know when I reach 1000 tiny stars - that will be a milestone to celebrate!I hope you all stick around and come back to see the finished quilt someday.
In making these small scale blocks I am using some techniques I haven't used in a while. With larger fabric pieces I can usually ease the pieces to fit and have matching points. For these tiny pieces, accurate seam allowances are a must. I sometimes use a stiletto point to make sure the last few stitches of the triangle seams stay in line.
I usually press seams to one side but pressing them open helps these small pieces stay flat and matched.
It was a fun, yet tedious project.
The finished quilt is four blocks and 12.5 inches square. Now I need to think about the quilting.
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