Starting to Piece Month 4

As promised, I got a decent start on the Month 4 piecing for Sedona Star yesterday.  It is pretty painstaking work!  Yesterday morning I checked the Show & Tell section at The Quilt Show to see how people are doing with Month 4.  Only one person was finished!  So I had a feeling this month would be trickier.  Usually there would be four or five people done after the first week.  But maybe enthusiasm wanes after the first couple of months too.

My modifications to the template went smoothly, and they didn't seem to add to the difficulty at all:

You can see that I drew in the 1/4 inch shadow on all the templates.  I used 1/8 seam allowances on all the internal seams, which turned out to be no problem at all.  Even though the darker orange pieces would finish small, I still cut the fabric 1 1/2 inch wide so I would have somewhere to put the pins.  You can see that I have also been staystitching the side seams, which gives me one less thing to worry about with the assembly.

The assembly of the sub-units is definitely the biggest challenge:

By the end of the day I had sewn together seven, and I had to redo a seam twice.  Because joining the units is the trickiest part, I am forcing myself to add each unit to the whole as I go.  That way I will not be stuck with the worst part at the end.

You probably realize that I have skipped over Month 3.  I am looking forward to going back to it, because I think it will be a doddle compared to Month 4!  It is fun to see how the designer Sarah Vedeler is increasing the challenge each month.  We will all be Mariner's Compass masters after this!

Overall, I am very happy with how it is going.  It is becoming clear that once again The Quilt Show BOM is going to be impressive.  When you see how all the details keep building month after month, it becomes a very satisfying thing.  Onwards and upwards!

Happy Easter!

I think Easter is my favourite holiday.  It's not just the chocolate, either!  Although that doesn't hurt. ;)  I love all the spring colours and spring flowers, and it's a gorgeous sunny day too.  It's such a hopeful time of year.

This amazing chocolate egg was bought for us by my sister at Chocolate Barr's Candies in Stratford, Ontario.  And look what was on the inside:

Caramels, maple creams and solid bunnies and chicks, all in premium dark chocolate.  I'm not sure I have room for lunch!

Otherwise, I've been extremely productive so far this holiday weekend.  I cut all the fabric for Months 2, 3 and 4 of Sedona Star, and copied all the templates onto the Ricky Tims Stable Stuff - one sheet at a time!  This afternoon my plan is to try my "shadow" idea for Month 4.  One way or another, I'll have some photos of that tomorrow. 

In the mean time, I hope you have a great day too.