Saturday 16 February 2013

Exploding Star block

Today I worked on catching up on the second block from the Lucky Stars BOM.  All blocks will be paper pieced stars.  This month, the block is called the Exploding Star.  Cool.  I started it this morning by perforating my templates and cutting out the fabric according to the instructions - here, I must digress...and rant.  A digression is always better with a rant.

When I made my January Lucky Star block, I cut out pieces to make both the large and the small block.  However, take a look at the GIANT scraps created by the insanely over-large pieces the instructions said were required:
I used my rotary cutter so you can get a good picture of how much extra there was.
Here are the same scraps lined up next to the pieces I cut to make the smaller version of the January block:
Do you see this!?!  I would have had enough to make both without cutting pieces for the small version!
So this time around I am getting wiser.  I only cut the fabric required for the large block with the intent of seeing if I can make the smaller version with the leftover pieces.  I figure, this way, I can save TONS of fabric.  Now here's my rant part -- not ALL of us have fabric sponsors.  Some of us even pay large amounts of money for shipping fabrics we can't get locally.  All I'm asking - and let me know if I'm out of line - but could pattern makers PLEASE not be so laissez-faire with what they are asking us to buy and cut!  

K, end of rant.  Anyhoo, this afternoon I went out to hang with my mom and niece.  Its her 6th birthday party tomorrow and she is OBSESSED with rainbows.  She even knows the proper scientific order of the colours and gets incredibly irate if you put the colours in the wrong order.  So, we made her a 6-tiered, R-O-Y-G-B-V rainbow cake with a rainbow on top.  I hope she hits rainbow heaven tomorrow.  Here is the cake monstrosity - its HUGE!

When I finally got home this evening, I was able to finish piecing my February Luck Star.  I'm not 100% satisfied with the points but given the massive amount of bulk in the centre, I'm pretty sure I couldn't do much better.  So I'll live with it....maybe....at least for now....or until I figure out a better way to fix it.  *sigh*

And finally, the two blocks together:

Pretty happy so far!  Perhaps I should go back and make the practice block now.  Ha!

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