Being a perfectionist

Many (many) months ago it was my turn to have bee blocks made by the Monday Modern group.



It really is exciting to have them done for you, and they look great all together! The lovely ladies got me up half a Queen-sized quilt - and the rest are up to me! 

I'm finding the concept of 20-odd blocks a bit daunting! I'm not a fast sewer at the best of times, and envy those who are - I spend a lot of time visualising (which is free and can be done on the couch), then worrying, and planning, and working up to cutting and then cutting (which is the job I really loathe and put off), sewing and then it usually sits awhile while I work up to doing a back, then it sits awhile longer because I don't like quilting much on my little machine. See even my description of the quilting process is long and drawn out! So I've started back into the stars but I can't quite remember what my plan was for the bits I already have cut out so it's going to be slow getting back into it and then I'll have to do a bunch more cutting - I'll need to find the original tutorial I used to make up the instructions I handed out (if I can remember which one it was). The main problem though, is how SLOW this is going to be because I have to press each seam as I make it, and that slows things down big time. I'm better at not being totally perfect at things than I used to be, but I still require a certain standard from myself and I can't be slapdash. I don't think I'm being OCD or anything, I just wouldn't be happy if I knew I hadn't tried my hardest to do the best job I could. I don't care so much if the result isn't perfect, well ok just a little, more that I tried hard. Not pressing the first seam when making the individual points would be slacking off in my books. Why am I so hard on myself when I'm not on others? See I'm just using this blog as cheap therapy ;)

ETA: I came back to change how I worded this post, I don't know if anyone else thought it sounded a bit whiny and self-pitying, which I didn't intend at all, so hopefully now it reads more like I intended! Plus I've been working at not pressing that first seam today (with mixed results on the personal development front).

The lazy woman's guide to making wonky stars

I like efficiency. I like finding a better, quicker, easier way to do anything. And really all that boils down to the fact that I'm, at heart, a very lazy person. If I can expend less energy getting from A to B then I'm all for it. So when I read instructions for wonky stars that want me to cut out lots of squares from various fabrics for the star points then my immediate thought is "do I really have to?". And no, it's not necessary, any old scrap will do if it's big enough as many other tutorials will tell you. But then I had issues with sewing on scraps and they wouldn't fit because I'd estimated wrong - unpicking the seam is time I could spend playing on the internet or with my iPhone, so that was just unacceptable. I also didn't like the wastage involved with some methods I've seen online. Fabric is expensive here in NZ, I'm not throwing away more than I need to. Lazy and cheap - that's me! So I started doing it this way. I'm sure I'm not the only person who does it this way, nor the first to document it, but I thought if it helped just one person spend more time on Instagram I would be doing the world a favour. This isn't a proper tutorial on doing a wonky star, just on making the sections. If you'd like to try making one I really like this tutorial at Oh Fransson!, although you have to add in the extra corner squares if you aren't joining them all together like she does.

The thing I like about doing it this way is that it doesn't matter if you have a small scrap or a large one, and if it's large you can just work in from the edge as you make stars and you don't waste as much as you would if you precut bits. Admittedly, I wasn't quite as careful with the first fabric in this tutorial as I would normally be, but hopefully you get the picture!

Select your first piece of fabric and fold over the edge about 1/4". It doesn't have to be exact but it does need to be even (please excuse the out-of-focus photos, the camera decided to focus on my wrinkly old hands instead). I finger crease it slightly.

Then flip it over and figure out where you want it on your square.

Once you have it where you want it, carefully flip it over and sew along the crease line. I usually just wiggle a couple finger tips under to grab the edge and keep it in place while flipping.

I then open the fabric out and flip it over so I can see the background square. If you can't see fabric all around the background square then you'll need to unpick the seam and try again.

I trim around this to get rid of the excess, leaving a little extra just in case (I forgot and trimmed off the corner before I cut around it, don't be like me! I've Photoshopped it back together, if only we could do that in real life...). 

Then trim off the excess background square. To be honest I don't really see the point in worrying whether this is 1/4" or not - who's going to see it? As long as it's wide enough things don't fray through and it's fairly even I call it good enough.

I usually press open my seam with the iron at this point, although you certainly don't have to and can just finger press, I just think it means less distortion and the square will sit flatter in the end.

Now repeat with the second fabric. Position it on the square with the edge folded over

Flip, and sew down the crease.

Open up the fabric and trim around the corner. Oh look, cat fur is stuck in the seam! Typical.

The corner will be a bit wonky from adding the first fabric but as long as you allow a smidge extra you won't get caught short when you open it out, which I know from experience is a seriously curse-worthy moment!

And then trim off the excess corner and press open the seam

Now the square needs to be trimmed.

Why pfaff around with a cutting mat when you have a perfect square of just the right size sitting next to you - just grab one of the unused background squares, position it over the top and trim around it carefully. I find this is a great way to square things up again if they've become a bit distorted by the sewing and pressing and much easier to do with another square than to try and figure out on a cutting board.

 Et voila! A perfect little square all ready to go.

Vintage sheet wonky stars

I made up this block as a sample to show the bee participants. I love it! I had this vision in my head of what the quilt would look like when I came up with the idea, and I think it might actually look even better in reality (which as you crafty people know isn't always the case!).

I used a star block from the Modern Blocks book to get me started, but will do up some different ones to keep things from looking too samey-samey. I really did feel that I didn't have enough variety in the sheets when I was making this up, when of course I have heaps - maybe I need help?

ETA: You can see more of my blocks over at Jaffa Quilts and Milly Made It - it was such a thrill when Megan and Karyn's posts popped up in my reader over the weekend - I can see why people get addicted to bees! I love the variations they've come up with, and I need to get working on my own.

Star block

The other night Cat was telling me a sad tale of a friend of hers in London who signed up for a bee with 18 people, and dutifully made everyone else's blocks, but when it came to her turn she got blocks from 3 other people. That is just tragic, but I'm assuming not uncommon? Anyways, Cat mentioned that she was collecting blocks from nice people to send over to her, and since she wanted stars and I was finishing up my blocks for the AMQG raffle quilt I made one. While the AMQG blocks are a small 9.5", this one is a nice generous 12.5" and SO much more fun to make for that reason! Took awhile though, those little stars are fiddly! The block comes from the Modern Blocks book. I had an awful time getting the final few seams to sit straight and even now I can see a few wobbles and mismatched seams.

I finally figured out why my point blocks are sometimes wider at the base than at the points - it's the bias stretching out in some fabrics. Phew. I was really beginning to worry about my seam allowances! I managed to keep a handle on it on the whole, though I can see one spot where it's not great. Any suggestions on how to avoid this?

Wonky stars

I sincerely hope you haven't been keeping track of my little list of 'to-dos' over in the side bar there because if you have you'll notice that I'm sadly off-track already! One of the things that derailed me from the construction of my Lisette Portfolio tunic (which is actually going ok but I need to do a few alterations and that's booooring!) is the need to whip up a few wonky star blocks for the Auckland Modern Quilt Guild raffle quilt. I've never done them before, and from all people were saying they're a lot of fun, so I finally got stuck into one last night instead of trying to put bust darts into the tunic - bit of a no-brainer really, fun vs. no fun.

This is my first!



It's not perfect, but I still like it. The colours are nice and bright and it's just neat all-round. You can see the top and bottom strips don't line up at the middle and I think that may be because the solid pink has some polyester in it and shrunk a little. Polycotton blends are the bane of my life - why do I even have any in the house?! I would also prefer the little star to sit a bit further away from the big one, but Hazel thinks they're a mummy and a baby star so now of course I'm very fond of them cuddling like that. In fact, she was so taken with this this morning that she would like to make wonky stars when she gets home from school. I was all about starting her on doll's clothes but hey, why not wonky stars! I'll tell you why not after we attempt them and if she I live to tell the tale ;) The block is about 9 1/4". I'm planning on doing a couple more to play around with the technique, probably a more medium star and a smaller star more widely spaced, and maybe three little stars together.

P.S. I did a post on fabric trends over at the AMQG, pop over and have a look if you're intereted!