Just a little bit

 I haven't really been doing much sewing... Xmas activities have started already and the tin shed I sew in has started to achieve height of summer temperatures (not a good mix with hot flushes!!).

However I did manage to finish the Amsterdam Star quilt top.  It's either bigger than I thought or our new clothes line is lower...

A close up of the wonderful bird print.  I had bought 2.5m with the intention of cutting the borders along the length... It worked well with a generous 10" wide strip.

And I found enough bits and pieces to make up a pieced backing.  Cunning plan: when I bought the feature fabric on special I also ordered coordinating background, fat quarters and backing that were all on special too... It turned out that I didn't use the fat quarters that were chosen (they coordinated but were quite heavy in appearance) but this turned out to be the most cost effective purchase.

I haven't gotten any further with this project but at least I know what the next step is (I just can't face it at the moment 😞).

Needing a small quick and easy little something something I pulled out all my star blocks so far for The Scrappy Star Quilt Adventure.

I though I'd try laying it out alternating the 12" blocks with the smaller blocks so that I wouldn't need to do sashing.  I don't like it!  Plus I would need a 7x7 layout so that the corners match.

Then I made a few of the stars for the months I was behind with.

Then I tried laying the blocks out again with space for sashing and making the placements more random.  This was always my intention and I'm glad that I like this layout much better!  And i can go back to a 6x6 layout so less blocks to sew... Yay!

Still a few more months to collect and sew (the joys of a BOM) but definitely making progress.

Design process

 Changing the quilt pattern can be a bit like opening Pandora's Box... You never quite know what the outcome is going to be.

I eventually chose this soft grey and white print for the sashing for Amsterdam Stars... It is a wide back so a great choice for those long lengths of sashing and inner borders. 

Initially I was going to do patterned cornerstones...

But the final choice of the grey setting triangles meant that grey cornerstones fitted better with the overall picture.

Even now I am still not 100% positive about the mix of white and cream backgrounds.

As I put together the last few sections I realized that I had rotated one of the sections incorrectly so will need to correct this before I go any further.

Today I have been working on quilt maths to work out the length of the outer edge of the half triangle blocks and the setting triangles to be able to cut the first border pieces.  Google makes this maths a relatively easy process but getting very precise decimal figures does not help with the conversion into fractions for the inches measurement.  I have got a pretty close match to the measuring tape backup measurements, so tomorrow I fix my incorrect block and can start the inner borders.  Guess I was wrong when I announced at school that we would never have to use this maths in real life 🤣.

Amsterdam Star WIP

 Sometimes it just needs one thing to make you look at an old WIP in a new light and before you know it you have it all pulled out and back on the cutting table.

I recently bought a new quilt pattern, and inspired by it's on point layout thought about some of the projects that have been tucked away for way too long, and realized that my Amsterdam Star blocks project (of which I had sewn 4 of 9 blocks) would work perfectly in a similar setting.  Bonus, I would have less blocks to sew.

Photographic evidence seems to suggest I was last working on this around March 2014 and when I got to the end of the pieces I had cut out, the whole lot got put away.  Right, I found my handwritten notes and away I went.  Well first it took a while to work out what my notes meant 😂😂

Fours blocks...

Became five and I drafted a half block

Mid weekend progress... I've got two half blocks pieced and two half blocks cut.  This is the basic layout.

The pattern used as inspiration has background triangles in the corners but I might see if I have enough fabric to piece corner blocks.  Time will tell.  More fabric needs to be purchased for sashing and inner borders.

I still really like the inspiration pattern and will one day make the original design.  But it's also been satisfying to work on an older project which I still love (and rue ever putting aside 🙈).