Point 5

Point 5 of my New Year Ideas (here) is to use up some of my ‘collection’ of fabric 😉

And so I’ve been looking around for a scrappy, quilty project and I’d almost settled on a scrappy Trip around the World when I saw a design I just fell in love with.

You know how it goes, you just glance at something quickly, then look back and you’re hooked! I even love the colours the quilt has been made in and happily I have a range of Autumnal colours in my stash crying out to be used.

The magazine the quilt is in (American Patchwork and Quilting June 2010) gives instructions for hand or machine piecing but I thought I’d do it by English Paper Piecing instead. I find this technique very portable so it will be a long term project for when I’m on the go but hanging around too, if you see what I mean! Sewing for long car journeys or waiting around times.

I’ve made my diamonds a smidgen bigger than the original and have prepared a few diamonds already.

I decided to baste the pieces using glue but when I tried it the glue I had just wasn’t man enough for the job (any suggestions for a good glue please?) and I’ve ended up tacking the fabric instead – frustrating BUT the positive is that I’ve been using up all those annoying end of bobbins I’d gathered over the years!

To start with I need to make 104 stars, each one made of 6 diamonds

So far I’ve made 8 stars with varying success at getting the centres all lined up and snug together. I’ve watched a couple of youtube clips and read a few blogs for advice on how to get the stars to have nice neat centres so I’m ready to give it another go.

However if you have any tips please feel free – all advice is welcome 🙂

I think by the time I’ve done 104 stars I’ll either be very good at it or I shall be buying a lot of buttons to ’embellish’ it!!

Until next time,

Chris x