BOM Stars for September

Yesterday was the meeting for my 2011 BOM group.  This month we did the Lucky Star -- which I didn't do.

And the Morning Star.  Which I did do.  That's mine at the lower right.  This was a paper pieced block.  I fussy cut the center pieces with templates.  

The trouble is, I didn't allow for the fact that paper piecing is done backwards.  So when I cut out my little pieces, they were going the wrong way.  And then I had to paper piece it from the wrong side.  Sheesh!

So my star spins in a different direction than the others  (It's a lot like me, I suppose).

The little one in the group picture also spins backward, but I think that's because she did hers in EQ7 so that she could print it out in the smaller size.  I don't know how she got it reversed though.  Maybe she just liked it better that way.

Also yesterday, I packed up my "Pieceful Tigers" and the pelican quilt and shipped them off for the AQS show in Des Moines.  The tiger quilt is here and the pelican quilt is here.

Oh -- and it wasn't the Saints playing the Packers last night -- that's the season opener next week.  Last night, they beat played the Chiefs.  

A Little Bit of Paint and Some Big Blocks

After heat-setting the diluted paint (thanks, Jill), I washed and ironed (again) these formerly white on white fabrics. I like the pale colors and the subtle textures from the scrunching.

The group that I meet with once a month decided to do this pattern for this year:

It's a sampler quilt with lots of options (for those of us who prefer to do our own thing) and the blocks are varied enough that they're interesting for advanced quilters, but easy enough for the more novice among us.

Since I had to return to my un-real job last week (after a six-week layoff), I have to get back in the swing of things and relearn how to budget my time. So I'm two months behind on blocks (and haven't posted in almost a week). I took a snow day today and finished this block:

It's called "Queen's Petticoat." For Christmas, my daughter gave me some beautiful batiks in watery blues and greens. I added some more from my stash and the fabrics I painted in my last post.

Being a fan of tedious patchwork -- why do easy if you can make it hard? -- I decided that the nine-patch in the center of the other January block was just too simple. So I got out my graph paper and drafted this star. I paper pieced it using the freezer paper technique.

This block is called "Mrs. Lloyd's Favorite." After I made the center, I thought it might have too much white space, so I made a Lemoyne star for the center. Yes -- one of those diamonds is a scrap of my own hand-dyed marbled fabric. It's left over from a quilt I made for my son -- I finished the top, now I just have to quilt it.

Now I have to decide which to use. Any suggestions?