Wow.  Let me just say that again slowly.  W-o-w.  If I thought Jane had some tiny pieces in her blocks; if I thought that paper pieced dress had some tiny pieces…..there weren’t many of them – just 12 – but those little white pieces in the middle?  They start out as 1″ squares.  I know what you’re thinking – but you’re working on  6″ block so that seems doable.  The next step is to draw a diagonal on that 1″ (unfinished) square and sew it to the corner of a 2.5″ unfinished square.  So really, the unfinished size of that white square is 1/2″ and the finished size?  Teensy tiny itsy bitsy.  I live in Texas.  It’s still hot here and I tend to run an oscillating fan when I sew but I didn’t dare on this block; those would’ve blown away and been lost forever.

The rest of the block was easy though!  A while back I custom ordered a die for my Patchwork of the Crosses quilt.  I am currently sewing the sashes to the blocks I’ve already made so nothing too exciting to report.  But that die happens to include a 1″ square that I use for the template where it calls for the square.  I’m so glad I had that because being a couple of threads off on something that starts out at just 1″ is going to make a difference.  For good measure, I used my 2 1/” die for the other 9 squares.  There was some glue basting going on and I put the governor on the pedal to super slow to make sure that I took my time with this one.  And I threw in a different medium blue that I bought this week for good measure.

I couldn’t put it off; today was the day I would baste what I’ve dubbed the “purple star quilt” but its real name is Anna’s Starflake designed by Nancy McNally. I always like picking out the pattern for a quilt; sometimes choosing fabric can be daunting but it is fun.  Sewing a quilt top?  Hands down my favorite part.  Quilting it? That’s the part that I’m usually nervous to start since it can easily go awry and those are stitches I dread having to pick out.  Binding?  I like it more now than I used to and it is the final step so it’s okay.  But basting.  Oh basting.  If it’s a lap sized quilt or a baby quilt it’s no big deal.  If my handy assistant is available to help then it goes faster (that would be the husband!). But no such luck this time.  I was on my own today.  The first thing I did was to knock over my bowl that supposedly keeps all my magnetic pins in it but as you can see it’s not as magnetic as I thought!  That quilt is basted my friends and I even started the quilting on it tonight.

In an attempt to put it off as long as possible, I called my sister.  I called my sister-in-law.  I got lucky and another friend called and told me about her trip to Niagara Falls.  Oh and I started cutting out the next quilts I’m working on.  This one will be easy peasy.  6″ squares, 3×6″ sashing and 3″ cornerstones using the 12″ Qube from Accuquilt.

I can never remember the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek.  I know one of them has the Starship Lollipop or some name like that.  One of them has “Luke I am your Fadder” as a quote and one has a guy with pointy ears.  But mostly what I know is my son and my nephew both like Star Wars so I’m making them identical quilts for Christmas. That’s a wrap for today!