LUCKY STARS PROGRESS

 A few months back I mentioned a new handwork project: LUCKY STARS. I was inspired by my friend Jackie Kunkel of Tuscon AZ as she showed all the great stars she was preparing: 

Jackie Kunkel photo

The Pattern from KUSTOM KWILTS
www.kustomkwilter.com

Read that first post for much more information: HERE

Getting fabric from my 12 Sunday Sew and Sew friends is a fun and easy way to gather a wide variety of fabrics each month. There is an assigned color each month and we each bring one light and one dark 3.5" square of that color for each person. These are very easy to cut from fat quarters. 

We "deal" them out as people arrive and everyone goes home with 12 light and 12 dark squares of the color. Here is the first month's table with the color Orange:

I thought I was going to LOVE this project. It's been a bit of a struggle. The pattern is great, the instructions are fine, I LOVE the design BUT...  I really don't know why I feel this way. 

I  LOVE making the 15 wedge ring by English Paper Piecing (EPP)--that is fun and simple handwork:

Joining the center star with black background to the outer wedge ring I find a bit more challenging:

So far I have made these 3, using different techniques each time:

I left the cardstock papers in before the machine applique--BIG mistake, it was a challenge to remove them after the applique

The "papers" were printed on Print n Piece Fuse Lite, easy enough and they stay in but they don't provide much of an edge for the EPP

Hybrid method, some hand, some machine applique and I took out the card stock wedges first--much better. 

I decided to machine applique the completed star to the black background, so much faster hand applique, and I am satisfied with that.

It is lucky that I have smart friends. One of them, Cyndi R., would rather Foundation Paper Piece (FPP) by machine than hand piece by the English Paper Piecing method (EPP). She worked with Electric Quilt (EQ8) to create a few star/centers that are the right size and shared those patterns with us.

Here are a few of Cyndi's blocks:

I printed her Split Star pattern on Freezer Paper and used it for my Blue/Aqua one:

For this one, I hand appliqued the outer Wedge Ring to the pieced Star, leaving the extra black background to be trimmed away after the applique was done.  I carefully removed the card stock papers from the Wedge Ring before the applique.  

After trimming the excess black background from behind the Wedge Ring, I machine appliqued the completed Star with Wedge Ring to a pieced black background square. Then I cut away the extra back background behind the Wedge Ring/Star.  I was happiest with this plan. 

A few of the Sunday Sew and Sews took a local class on how to make this entirely by machine, gluing all the pieces together then machine appliquing each seam. That is an interesting technique BUT this was supposed to be my ongoing HAND project so I am not interested in that method. 

So, for now, I will keep making Stars by Foundation Paper Piecing, using FREEZER PAPER as the foundation, then doing BOTH hand and machine applique to complete the block. 

If you want to know more about Foundation Paper Piecing with Freezer Paper, see my TUTORIAL HERE.

Susan C. said "I was DREADING this project BUT I LOVE this block and English Paper Piecing!" I am thrilled she is loving it. Look at her progress:

A few of our group haven't started yet so time will tell how many of us make a complete quilt. I can always use more placemats...

Let's quilt.

Barbara