Twin Starstruck runners and new pineapple

 I rarely work with blue unless it is patriotic, however I pieced two blue Starstruck runners recently. These are from my tutorial.

And then in a desperate attempt at using more scraps I started another scrappy pineapple quilt. Another 3 or perhaps 6 blocks will be made and then I will sash the blocks and add borders.

Linking with Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pageant, Off The Wall

Snowman, StarStruck and Hocus Pocus!

 I have been very busy this week. Two of these Snow Dudes have been pieced and one quilted. 

I finished up this blue Starstruck table runner.

Then onto piecing two Gnome runners and I even pieced their backings! Maybe I'll be quilting them while you are reading this;)

Hubby was gone so I had a bit of extra time last night and I finished making this stitchin' into a little pillow.  I stitched this a couple years ago as a SAL with Primrose Cottage. Between the Aida cloth and the fabric I added a colorful ribbon from my card making supply. It didn't want to stitch right so I glued it on. 

Just the right addition to my little Halloween display. 

Linking with TGIFF, Finished or Not Friday, Off The Wall, Beauties Pageant

Starstruck

It's been a quilting/finishing week still, working my way through the projects pieced at retreat just over a week ago. This is my blue Starstruck table runner. 

It's an easy one to make. I have a tutorial for it on my tutorials page.

I couldn't find a blue that looked good in my stash so I opted for gray for the backing.

I love this pattern so much I want to make a red/white/silver one. Well maybe after I get the other 5 runners, that are on my list for the week, finished.

Linking with Wednesday Wait Loss, Midweek Makers, NTT and Put Your Foot Down.

Day Three at Retreat

This one is a great scrap buster, I love doing it in the fall colors which also sorta makes it antique looking. But it could be done in any color really. It's a pattern in a booklet from Calico Printworks, called Cornerstones. 

Next up was this Starstruck, it is a tutorial from me which you can find under the tutorial heading at the top of this page. Quilting will happen at home for all three of these projects. 

Then I moved on to piecing a new to me pattern. Three yard free pattern called Bravo from Material Girlfriends. However I obviously forgot how to count when I was cutting as I was short four white squares for the star corners and didn't bring the polka dot fabric with! Hate when I do that. So after I get home I will cut and sew the last star to make another row and then add the three borders.

I still had lots of time to chat with my fellow quilting friends in between the sewing. Wednesday was my team of 4 preparing the two meals, french toast with saugages for brunch was a lighter meal than Tuesday. And then for the evening meal we did a baked spaghetti dish with salad and breadsticks. Sorry I forgot to take pictures of any of it!  That evening the three at my sewing table spent a lot of time laughing so hard we couldn't even tell the others what we were laughing at! Do you ever do that?  And then if you try to retell it to people it isn't so funny and they don't get it!!

At any rate since I sewed the first runner with scraps I am linking with Oh Scrap! 

To Do Tuesday #33

 Time is flying right by, we welcomed fall in today.  And it's the warmest day we have had in weeks at 80 sunny degrees!  We even managed a bike ride today, after I did some sewing.  Then I picked some apples from our tree and hubby made us an apple pie! 

On to the goals for last week...

1. Quilt two Valentine runners that I had pieced earlier this spring. DONE

2. Piece and quilt another fall leaves runner. DONE

3. Go to the fabric moving sales. DONE

The sales started at 10am and it said no early sales.  I arrived at 10:06 and there were people galore, cars lined up for two blocks on both sides of the street. Everyone had masks and we were outside.  And people were already leaving with armfuls!  We couldn't help ourselves at $2 a yard and it was nice fabric.  Here is my haul, as you can see there was lots of fall fabrics to pick from.  I was wishing for more reds for backing of holiday runners.  But at least I am stocked up for the rest of this fall and probably next fall too. That is 43 yards of fabric in these two piles! But seriously I could have bought twice that, but I put the brakes on, haha. 

So I met my goals and managed to do a few more things, one I posted about earlier today for the Hello Fall blog hop in this post.  There was enough time left to make one of my Starstruck runners. I have a tutorial for it on my tutorial page. 

And not quilting related but hubby and I made salsa for the very first time.  We used a premix of Mrs. Wages salsa mix and added tomatoes, green peppers and onions.  It is delicious!!  

Have I made you hungry talking about salsa and apple pie?  Did you want to see the apple pie too;)  The apples are from our own tree.  We might have put a little ice cream on our slices too. 

Be sure to pop over to Roseanne and Sue's blog to check up on all our blog friends goals this week for To Do Tuesday. I am linking up over there. 

OMG- wait I didn't set any goals for next week, how about make 3 table runners and maybe start a wall hanging. 

Starstruck tutorial

Several of you asked for the tutorial for my Island Batik Starstruck table runner.  This is a simple tutorial for those of you already knowing how to piece a runner, which I assume that everyone that follows my blog does.

This is for one 13" finished block:  Using your favorite method of making HST's(half sq. triangles) make eight that will measure 3.5" unfinished (3" finished in your block) of a background and a main color.   Also cut four 3.5" sq. of background color.

This one is a little trickier but you can do it!  Cut four 1.5" x 5.5" strips of background.  Cut four 3.5" squares of main color and cut in half on the diagonal.  And sew as in the photo below centering your triangles on the background strip.  These will be over sized so you can trim to a perfect 3.5" sq.

Here is how I trimmed the first two sides. Notice how I have one of the diagonal lines of the ruler laying down the center of the background strip.  Trim the top and right side. Turn the block and ruler and trim the last 2 sides to measure 3.5" square.

 Cut four 1.5" x 6.5" strips of background and one 1.5" sq of main color.  Lay out as below and sew together.

My runner is made with 3 blocks with spacers in between.  I cut the spacer strips from background 1.5" x 13.5".  I also added on outside borders which I cut at 1.5" x the width of the runner and also 1.5" x the length of the runner.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!  And I hope you enjoy making your own runner.

Linking with Beth, Beth and Connie

I am Starstruck!

September is Starstruck month for us Island Batik Ambassadors.  The challenge is to create anything we want with stars on it.  I decided I wanted to make a table runner, I mean that is kinda my specialty, LOL.   I love stars so the next decision was to decide on which star to use.  I had been seeing a few of these Scandinavian type stars and I have never made one.  Sounds like the perfect one to do since it is always fun to try something new.

















Here is what 3 of the star blocks set together with a little sashing in between the blocks looks like.  I am sure I will be using this block again, I love how it came out.  Two fabrics from the Island Batik Jungle Cruise collection were used to create my table runner.

After quilting and binding it measures 15" x 42.5".

The teal batiks had ferns on them so they were screaming for me to try out this new allover quilting design I just discovered from Leah Day.  She calls it sharp stippling, I call it ferns.
It is so fun and forgiving, I will definitely be using it a lot!










As always I love to thank Island Batik for providing this luscious fabric for me to create this project. And thanks to Hobbs batting for the Thermore batting used in this project.

If anyone would like a simple tutorial for this block I will put one together.

Joining in the Friday linky parties at:

Silly Mama

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Busy Hands

Bolt to Beauty