RJ Ward Design

I'm sad to say my favorite quilt along has come to an end. I've been busy all month with Faith at Fresh Lemons Quilts  making some really unique blocks. I've learned how to cut, make Half Square Triangles or HST's as the quilters call them, paper piece blocks which is actually sewing on paper and of course the obvious that I'm known to do is Sew.Rip.Repeat to some really great accuracy. First up is the last of the paper pieced blocks. It is called Star of Mystery. This block was so involved and it took alot of thinking and determination to be able to get this to the point where I liked it. You are actually sewing backwards and then flipping the fabric over. You have to really make sure you have plenty of fabric when you do the flip. I tried to use the same fabrics as the Whirling Star Block . I really love this fabric line called "Sunny" from Joann Fabrics which is a local craft store. The yellows, grays, blacks and whites just pop! Now the last b...

I've been keeping up with Faith and her great tutorials in the Solstice Stars Series . First off I'll show you my first attempt at this block. Talk about being a newbie in the quilting field because I never noticed how the fabric bunches until after I took the pictures and posted them in her flickr group - Duh! So here is my gathered up mess: I was shocked when I looked at this picture and saw all the puckering. It looks like I was trying to ruffle my way up the seam. So in honor of the name of this blog I actually did Sew.Rip.Repeat. This time I made sure that after every seam I sewed I double checked that there wasn't any puckering. I am so in love with these fabric choices. I get a chuckle everytime someone comments on the flickr group on my fabric choice because I actually bought it at a chain fabric store in my city. The collection is called "Sunny" from my fabric store stand-by, Joann's. I see the next scheduled quilt block is suppo...

Remember my first attempt at the Ribbon Star Block  from Faith over at Fresh Lemon Quilts ? Well I've moved on to the Whirling Star Quilt Block. I'm still using fabric that I purchased at Joann's from a series called "Sunny Collection". I think my new favorite color choices are yellow and gray - LOVE! The Whirling Star consisted of paper piecing fabric to what else - paper. Being someone who's never made quilt blocks before this was quite a challenge. I needed to use a 90/14 needle so it would perforate the paper so when the time came for me to remove the paper it could be done easier. I also needed to adjust my stitch length on my machine to 1.4. I have all these notes above my sewing area because a true 1/4" on my machine is a stitch width of 3.0 and my needle needs to be mirror imaged for it to move. Crazy! Since it takes so much concentration for me to think, cut and then sew (I did have to rip out my small sample piece) I didn't take any pictur...

I've done it! I finally went out of my comfort zone and joined a Flickr group that lets you post pictures of quilt blocks that are a part of a series or group. I came across a blog called Fresh Lemons written by Faith. Faith was starting a series called Solstice Stars and the first block is the Ribbon Star Quilt Block. I have some fabric that I am working with for the Craftsy Block of the Month and I decided to use them for this one too. I got the fabric over at Joann's when they were running one of their many specials (sorry this girl doesn't have any fancy quilt shop fabric). I really love the grays and yellows. This just might be my new found favorite colors. I worked all afternoon on my quilt block deciding which 4 fabrics to go with. I have to say that this block was so enjoyable for someone who has never really made any sort of quilt blocks before this month. I'm a newbie and proud of it! So here it is: Can you believe it? All the points lined up perfectly...