365 Stars

I love birthdays. A lot of people don't, for their own reasons, and that's fine. But five years ago some horrible stuff happened and I almost died, and since then I have tried really hard to see the good side of things, to enjoy every little moment, and to make the most of what I have been given. It gets a little tough sometimes, especially in the last 18 months with my husband picking up a disability, and with our families so far away. But we get by, and we still live a happy and simple life.

For my birthday this year I decided to start a new quilt project (surprise surprise), but with a bit of a twist. I'm going to make a star block every day for 365 days. And it's not just any star block.



It's a teensy weensy star, and it's English paper pieced!



I've made one every day for the last three days, starting on my birthday on the 27th but my husband bought me the papers as my birthday present over a month ago so I've been slowly preparing fabrics since then.



I had decided I wasn't going to fussy cut any of the fabrics, but then the papers arrived and I realised the pieces were a lot smaller than I thought. So now if the fabric deserves to be fussed over, I will. Perhaps.



Each star takes about 25 minutes or so. I've been sewing them after I have my shower and breakfast, while drinking my coffee, in the time I'd usually take to read the morning paper. It certainly makes me a lot less stressed in the morning, I've noticed. Some days I'll end up doing it in the evening, but as I've discovered, life is too short for hard and fast rules, and it's only quilting.



I'm using the pattern by Karen Styles of Somerset Designs. The pattern arrived with the plastic templates, but because I decided to EPP it instead of hand piecing, I got the papers and acrylic templates from Paper Pieces. I still haven't got much of a plan for these stars.

I'll probably just make it up as I go along. Should be fun!

Because quilting = pure joy

Gosh I'm loving quilting at the moment. I'm loving it so much that I have finished all but one of my Lucy Boston blocks.



(This is the view that greeted me when I was closing the curtains in the living room after dusk on Friday night. It's my sewing room from across the deck. We are so lucky to live in this old house.)

I also made plans for two new quilts - one I will tell you about in a couple of weeks, but the other is the Stepping Stones quilt by Irene Blanck. It has octagons and squares. I've loved this pattern for a long time, but then it popped up in the last Quiltmania issue. I've already made two blocks and goodness me I love them! The octagons and squares are 3/4 inch, which makes a small square but a large octagon. Perfect size for EPP.





And I don't think I ever told you about Project 48 - it's a year long quilt with one block being issued a week. I started around Easter - a few months after most other people - and have made only half of the blocks so far, but it's been a lot of fun. Here are a few of the blocks.







I also headed up to Sydney by myself a couple of weeks ago for a QuiltNSW general meeting. After over 20 years of us only owning one car, I bought a second car earlier this year. But because I mostly ride my bike to work each day it hadn't done many kilometres. And I felt like having a few hours alone listening to the Hamilton soundtrack (loudly) and working out the cruise control so off to Sydney I went for the day. I'd never been to a meeting before, but it was a wonderful day spent stitching, talking with old friends and making new ones. And it was informative as well with the guest speaker being Sarah Fielke talking about her old and new quilts the guild business meeting taking place, and Rachael was also there talking about her Best of Show quilt.





By the end of the day I felt a little bit tired but also exhilarated and inspired. It was such a fantastic Saturday. I'm so glad I'm a member of QuiltNSW - the members and committee have always been nothing less than welcoming to me since I joined a few years ago. I'm not as elegant with my words as Rachael, so head over to her blog post for more on the day. I can't wait to go to another meeting - hopefully I can get to the next one in October.

I think a lot of my love of quilting at the moment has to do with not having any exhibition deadlines hanging over me. As much as I don't let quilting stress or burn me out, I never realise how much of a commitment of time I've promised to it until the date of entry has passed and I suddenly have some free time. It's fun just creating for the heck of it when I have the time and the inclination to stitch.  Long may it continue!

(My garden is looking a bit weedy at the moment though! And I have a lot of quilts to blog.)