fireworks, snowflakes, and more

This is the asterisk block I was telling you about. They're easy to make, just a bit time consuming, as is true of so much of quiltmaking.

Start with squares, or rectangles if you prefer. The ones I'm doing here are 4 1/2" and the strips I'm inserting are 1". I've done these with various widths of strips but I stop liking it after they get wider than 1 1/2" - but that just may be me. Working with the 1" strips, I end up with a block the same size I started out with or a bit smaller, depending on how uneven I pieced it.

These start out a lot like Xs. Slice from one side (or corner) of the square to another side or corner. The slice can bisect the square or be angled. In the purple block, I'm aiming to get the center of my burst offcenter, where that white chalkmark is (tho the mark got swallowed up in seam allowance). Sew your strip of fabric to one side of the triangle and then to the other. This is what I call inserting a strip.

Slice again, so that you'll be making something of an X. Insert a strip.

Third strip Fourth strip
Here's a tip that I completely forgot about. After making each slice, check out the back of the block and cut off any dog ears. That will help lessen the bulk in the middle of the asterisk.

And if you do have problems getting over the bulk, just run back over that spot again.

Other helpful hints: I piece with the strip at the bottom and the background on the top. Don't iron until after you have sewn both sides of an inserted strip - this will help the block keep its shape. I often don't iron until I've done the whole block, but that's me, non-ironing girl.

And here are some completed firework bursts for my current quilt:

New Beginning

Hey, I told ya'all I'd started a new quilt. Well this is it. Right now I'm making a little bit of this and a little bit of that, some of which may make it into the final quilt and some which undoubtedly won't. I'm playing.

The one certainty is the words. This is gonna be my "Terms of Endearment" quilt. I'm going to use all the various pet names my hubby and I have for each other and for our four-legged babies. Not going to use the ones that are plays on names like "Hocus Pocus" and "Lilypad" and I'm not going to fill it with generic terms that anybody and everybody uses. I want this quilt to be personal. Or should that be personalized? Whichever.

I did some more sewing today, but didn't get any more words or asterisks finished. Spent way too much time internetting. This is my third entry of the day, by golly. Still, I have to tell ya'all, I love answering questions and seeing people try the letters, try the fans. I've updated the links in my sidebar to take you to the tutorials I've done. All of it is adapted from what I've posted on the blog. Please check it out and ask questions, make suggestions...

Life overseas: hurrah, we finally have Diet Doctor Pepper back in stock at the commissary after a 6-month absence. AND it tastes better than it did before (was too metallic - think it had been sitting around for years in a storage depot somewhere). I'm limiting myself to one can a day cuz I know it's not good for me. And they're gonna run out again almost immediately so I'd better pace myself. I was drinking something like 4 liters a day of it in the states. I know, stooopid.

And where the heck is my "Charmed?" Showtime put it on every weekday for a week, then it's gone, then it's back, and now it's gone again. Argh. Plus they're showing the half hour Aussie soap "Home and Away" so it completely throws the schedule off for part of the day and makes the shows start on the half hour instead of the hour. And tell me why we need all these garbage anyway? "Young and the Restless" and, even worse, Maury Povitch... What impression does this give to the rest of the world about Americans?

How wide to cut the strips?

Someone asked me, how wide she should cut her strips for a certain project where she needs to fit her word into a defined space. Have to say, that I've never tried to think my way through it - I just start working and make adjustments as needed, but I decided to graph it out and see if I could figure it out that way.

I cut the graph paper 8" x 27" and I didn't know if the letters were supposed to hit the edges or not, so I decided to leave an inch around the entire thing. For one thing, it's a lot easier to make a block bigger by adding on wider borders than it is to make it smaller if you overshot it (if you've already pieced it all together anyway).

I had fun drawing this out - similar to piecing it, but a whole lot quicker (and probably more boring since I can't have accidents doing it this way). To fit this space, I would cut the largest letter strips 2.5" and the narrowest 1" and for the background the narrowest would be 7/8" (that's what I use to get a quarter inch, which is what I used between the letters). I used the widest "strip" for the main chunk of all the letters, altho the i and r are a quarter inch narrower.

It would be easy to make adjustments to this, such as leaving a half inch between letters instead of a quarter inch, and making the letters go even higher and lower. If you use different fabrics for the letters, you could leave out the background fabric in between the letters and just join them up.

This is just a mock-up to get an idea of what the finished product would look like - please please please use something like this as a guide, not specific instructions.

Truly Free Fans

Yes, my friend (who shall remain nameless but you know who you are) these really and truly are unmarked free-hand fans in Little Pink Houses.

Quilting arcs a half-inch apart helps to make them smoother. Still, by the time I got to the top of this little (23" x 21") quilt, there was a good 1 1/2" difference between the top of the highest fan unit in this row and the lowest fan unit. Here's a pic where I have those two points marked. See, one way high, one way low. And it doesn't matter.


I know I'm a broken record on this point, but you just have to relax and enjoy the process of doing these free-hand fans. They WILL look great when you are done. And the more you do these, the better they will look. Practise, practise, practise.
On a completely different note: Tazzie, I enjoyed your comment. I'd love to see your blog but right now it's blocked. If that's on purpose and you're not ready to share, no worries. On the other hand if you're wondering why no one visits your blog, there's an answer.

Little Pink Houses

"Little Pink Houses" was made directly after "Reach for the Stars" using leftover asterisks, a heart, and the piano key border. That and some new blocks... The colors here are much truer than the pic yesterday.

I've started piecing a new quilt, using the same fabrics and a few leftover Xs from "Fruit Punch" - I'll show you a few pics in the coming days. Speaking of Punch, I haven't decided on a border treatment yet. Figure it's better to let it rest (and wait for my fabric purchases to arrive).

I put aside my Cranky Witch quilt (it's nowhere near Halloween yet) and picked an old UFO back up. I was inspired to work on "Space 4 Rent" after seeing Laura's "Beam Me Up, Scotty" quilt. "Space" has aliens and houses and unfortunately requires thinking while quilting. I don't have a good photo of the top and I'm not taking one now with the safety pins in it.

I rented some DVDs. I only thought "Garden State" was so-so, tho an impressive debut for "Scrubs" cutie Zach Braff. Didn't like "Sideways" nearly as much as I wanted to. I thought the friend was such a lieing scumbag and I couldn't stand him.