Friday 14 October 2011

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

15 comments:

  1. Hi Judith, thanks for calling back by (you said you did and you do!) - you are now fully enabled :)

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  2. Ooh, those turned out fab, love the effect of both of them

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  3. I love your star blocks!! I have never seen the Orbit Star before-- it is gorgeous! And the spider web is a personal fave. Laura Jane selected some beautiful fabrics!! Nice job!!

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  4. Thank you honey!! They are star-spanglingly beautiful!!!

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  5. Oh the pressure is on because everyone is coming up with such stunning stars. Must get onto it and do mine before someone does my ideas and I ahve to really search more.

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  6. Those are beautiful! I have used paper piecing but have not tried to use a foundation fabric, maybe I should give that a try too.

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  7. I love those Orbit stars!! I have no patience whatsoever with foundation piecing but one day I will commit to learning properly, if only to make these blocks :)

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  8. wow, those stars are fantastic. I am a newly converted fan of foundation piecing, even though it can be very fiddly!

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  9. Beautiful stars Judith! Love your process and diligence.

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  10. Oh wow I love this post. So beautiful!

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  11. Great blocks - they are sure to shine and I love Laura's fabric. Thanks for the siggy block explanation!

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