Brit Bee Blocks for Miss October

This week I finished my Brit Bee Blocks for Miss October (aka Laura Jane).  LJ had the inspired idea of theming her month with stars, any stars at all (because we are all stars in her eyes - bless!).

So after much researching my small collection of books, and online, I came up with these:

The 'Orbit' star

Spider's Web

I was nervous about jumping straight into LJs fabrics with new patterns, especially as I had to do some re-sizing (& Carol Voderman I am not!).  So I did practise blocks.

This one is foundation pieced Orbit star, and of course the practise block went like a dream, no hiccups whatsoever!

Until it came to the real thing!  

Foundation piecing is known for fabric waste, and I didn't want to waste any of LJs fabrics, especially as I had 2 x 12.5" blocks to get out of the gorgeous fabrics.  So some of the finished seams are smaller than 1/4 ", but they are all hidden behind the foundation fabric, and securely sewn.  So I'm hoping they'll pass.

The 2nd block is called Spider's Web, based on this tutorial.  Again I had some resizing issues, but my trial half block soon put me right.  

I love the scrappiness of this pattern, and while you need 4 of these blocks together to really appreciate the spider's web effect, I think it's a lovely star block in it's own right.  I can just see some perle cotton hand quilting going on inside the white star!

I got my siggy block* made too, all parcelled up and ready to twinkle their way to LJ.

(* A siggy block is a signature block, a small square with details of the person who made the block i.e. name, town, Bee, date.  Everyone in the Bee makes one each month for the person whose month it is.  They then have 11 siggys to piece into the back of their quilt as a record of all the contributors to the quilt. See here for an easy peasy tutorial.)

Have a fab Friday!

Judith xo