fabric fun

I've been having so much fun playing with fabric!

I love being able to bless others with my sewing,

but when I sew for other people,

be it gifts or commissioned work,

I feel a pressure that I don't have when I'm sewing for just our family.

So,

when Saturday found me with a few hours to myself
I made the most of it.

(Tyler took the kids to Family Day at his work, and let me stay home all by my lonesome.

Thanks, Love!)

I have plenty of projects (including more gifts) that could have occupied my time,

but I decided 

since these were 'found hours'

I would just play.

I pulled out the fabric stack that I had carefully curated

when I was in the middle of sewing black and white for days on end

and was really missing color,

(There are so many lovely fabrics in the pile!)

and got busy.

(I had cut most of the fabric Friday night while Brandon and Tyler were at a movie with friends)

Shockingly,

even though I adore a well starched block, 

I'd decided not to starch this time,

because I wanted to enjoy the feel of the different substrates.

Enjoy it, I have!

(My goodness, I love Art Gallery fabrics! And Lecien.)

I'm telling you, 

every second has been pure pleasure

and I have been sneaking  15 minutes here and 5 there to work on stars.

The 16 patch blocks are practically making themselves.

I lay out the pieces to one star block at a time,

then remove, 

in an orderly fashion, the 2nd set of star points and the corner squares

and take the remaining pieces to the machine

where I chain piece the first 4 points

then sew a pair of strips for a 16 patch block.
Leaving the sewn strip set under the presser foot,
I cut the threads to the star pieces,

trim off excess background fabric, then press (toward the star fabric),

then re-arrange the pieces

and add the 4 triangle star points back in.

Sew those.

then feed the second strip set for the 16 patch through the machine.

trim, press (again, towards the star), trim again - this time into a 4 1/2 in square,

then rearrange the star and replace the corner pieces,

and sew the squares into rows.

When I can no longer sew a seam without pressing,

I sew a pair of 2 patches together (somewhere along the way, I pressed and subcut the strip pairs)

then press all seams towards the background fabric

and join the top and middle row,

sew another bit on the 16 patch

then sew the bottom row onto the other two,

and then another bit of the 16 patch....

By the time I have a completed star block,

I also have a half finished 16 patch,

just by continuing to chain piece 

rather than cutting my  threads each time I needed to press before moving on.

See?

Practically making themselves!

I showed my stack of blocks to Tyler when they got home.

He said something along the lines of, "That's a lot of colors."

Yes.

Yes it is.

:-)

Linking up with Lee again.

Wonky stars and 16 patch quilt idea borrowed shamelessly copied from Jolene of Blue Elephant Stitches.