Even More Collector Blocks

The other day I had reached the saturation point on Sedona Star, but I was still in the mood to sew, so I put together a few more square in a square Collector Blocks.  Do they ever seem easy now!

The ones on the top and bottom right are Kaffe Fassett's Lichen design.  I love this design, and I am very unhappy that it has been discontinued!  I particularly like the way the grey/brown one at the top plays well with the spotted background fabric.

I may make up the last 10 of these later today, but first I want to make at least half of another Month 4 ring.  Lots to do!

Finished Month 4 Ring

Hi!  Just a quick post today.  Here is the first completed ring for Sedona Star Month 4.  The inside edge is a little wobbly, but hopefully the applique centre will still go on smoothly.  The green fabric is Kaffe Fassett's Aboriginal Dots in Forest.  Two more to go!

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!