Design Wall for last Monday Feb 9th

I always seem to be running behind on all my projects.  However, I did get (2) quilts done & bound on Monday evening, so I could turn them in on Tuesday to our Sewing Group.  These two quilts will be given to ladies in need of a hug.  Here's a picture of those quilts.
The batting was pieced on each of these quilts.  I tried butting the batting pieces together & free motion quilting the pieces to hold them together.  Let me tell you--that was not such a great idea.  As you can tell by the lower right side of the picture, there was some stretching involved when I machine quilted it.

Thankfully, I figured out the problem prior to machine quilting the Tumbler Quilt.
Instead of free motion quilting the batting together, I cut a long 3/4" strip of muslin.  The two pieces of batting were placed side by side and the muslin was centered on top.  Then I sewed down each side of muslin, making the batting into one nice piece with no stretching of the batting.  I also sewed a strip of 3/4" muslin down both sides on the back of the batting.  Why in the world would I go to all this trouble?  I had too many pieces parts of batting, which I wanted to use.   

Front of Quilt 30" x 60"

Back of Quilt 30" x 60"

Back of Tumbler Quilt

Front of Tumbler Quilt

On Tuesday, when I went to our Sewing Group, one of the ladies was working on a Quilt of Valor.  She had all the pieces cut for Star Flowers, which was designed by Diane Tomlinson, Assistant Editor of Love of Quilting.  It was shown in Fons & Porter magazine (not sure what month or year).  It has lots of angles and we discovered, it does matter which way you cut the 60 degree diamonds and we didn't have the special ruler needed to make it easier.  She asked if anyone wanted to take it home and give it a try.  After I got home, I happened to notice the small printing at the top of the page which stated:  CHALLENGING.
I always try to steer away from "Challenging" but since I had everything, except the ruler, I'd give it a try.
Here's what I have so far.....

(4) Star Flower Blocks for QOV

I assigned a number to each of the (6) sections of the star.  It was determined that Section 1 & 6 were the same and Sections 2,3,4, and 5 were the same.  It made a difference which way the blue or red strip was sewn on.

I also try to steer away from "set-in seams", which I discovered, will be a challenge when joining all of the stars.  And, yes, it does make a difference on how you turn the large white diamond, when you sew it onto the stars, which I discovered when I went to press, based on the picture shown below.

Large Diamond set in seam (LOL)

Everybody needs a good laugh, now and again.  I set the large diamond in very nicely.  However, the star block wants to stand up on the ironing board rather than lie down flat.

For now, I think I will finish making all the star blocks and then see how I feel.  I may try to tackle the set-in seams again but at this point, I'm not sure.....

Hop on over to Judy's Blog  Patchwork Times.com  to see what others have created this week.