Radiant Star Part 5, Forward Progress

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Suzanne

I’m now up to 3 fully complete blocks. And since taking this picture, I’ve actually added sashing to those 3 and sewn them together into a unit. Plus, I have the subunits for 2 more stars ready to be assembled tomorrow.

I hadn’t counted until just this very minute: there are 121 individual pieces in each star. Huh. Not including the borders (but including the sashing…) there are 2859 individual pieces in the entire quilt. I’m not sure it helps me to know that. The way I make the HST units, though, I consider them as “one,” so really, I guess I could say there’s only 89 pieces in a block.

Yeah, that didn’t help either.

I’ve started making a few of the little stars for the cornerstones: they finish at 3 inches. It’s fun to actually have something that finishes in just a few seams.

A look at all of my little piles of pieces: subunits waiting to be assembled into larger units, eventually resulting in a full star.

I’ve started trimming up enough of these little blue and white guys to make two blocks at a time. I have a lot of these yet in my future, but it helps to do them just a bit at a time.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time…

Crossed off the list

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Suzanne

A Covered Lampshade! Having said something on the ole blog, I figured I’d better follow through:

My sister-in-law had gotten 3 different beaded trims to try out, and I couldn’t remember which one Lucy and I had decided on, so after glueing on the fabric, I had Lucy come over to help wtih the beaded trim.

They are going to be spraypainting an older lampbase orange (I think it’s currently pink), and then Lucy will have a custom light fixture to match the quilt I made her. I’d forgotten that I also made pillowcases for her. That was back in October 2007, but I’m pretty sure it’s only been since Summer 2008 that I’ve been sitting on the lampshade.

After finishing Joe’s creature, which I suspect has been sitting around longer than the lampshade…Will demanded that I make something for him. Luckily for me, the drawing he made me was pretty simple, and I was able to tackle it quite easily:

I quilted the body fabric before cutting it out just to give it some additional texture, since Mr. Ghost is quite plain. Will did most of the stuffing, and I finished it up with some hand-sewing this afternoon. I forgot to show it to him earlier, and was going to sneak it into his bed, but…he was still awake when I took it in. His big grin was worth the effort.

Daily Photos, catching up

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Suzanne

Consulting about…something…

Photo of Joe, taken by Will (they were working on the bay window in the background, I left my camera home for the boys to take action shots…)

Peony by our mailbox:

Siding all up, plus the new light fixtures installed. I skipped Friday (camera got left at the shop), but Mark took some pics with his camera, and I haven’t had a chance to get any from him yet.