Solstice Stars -  Work in Progress

Star of Mystery 

After a Holiday weekend long pinterest fest, I was inspired. 

So I used the Holiday to be creative. No sandwiching and finishing quilts that have been languishing in a bin for me. I started Fresh Lemon's Solstice Stars. I tackled a paper pieced star today which took quite a while. I love that it came out pretty sharp, but I still find paper piecing to be pretty stressful.

Another Star

Faith's tutorials are great though: and by the time I had pieced the 3rd side of the outer section of  the Star of Mystery I was in a groove.  I do love Faith's instructions. 

My  biggest take-home lesson was to slow down, take the time to lay out all the pieces, and really "see" them, before starting to sew: Much more pleasing and no seams to rip out when you've planned what you are doing. 

Ribbon Star

My small cutting board turns out to be perfect for carrying the parts to the sewing machine after a final trimming. 

Non Whirling Dervish

So here they are: 4 Solstice Stars, one modification of one of Faiths Six Point String Star and a take off on Becca's Whirling Dervish mini quilt, all more or less 12.5 inches square. These last two need were definitely a practice run and need a repeat to get them right. All material is scrap batiks from my stash.

We'll see what the weekend brings. I still have one more paperpieced star to try and then figure out a layout and how many stars I need to make that:

The blocks are actually straighter than they look, I need to stand on a chair to shoot straight down, so the photos aren't at an angle.

String-pieced equilateral stars
Might be my favorite.

Two-color Star