I decided I would add  half blocks to the outer edge of the top to complete the scrap stars. The blocks themselves had gone so quickly, it wouldn't take much more time, surely?

I made a strange part-block like this,


 and then used a 9 1/2" ruler to trim them to size. Heather has a neat tip in the book to make sure everything is lined up correctly which helped a lot.

 Also, by keeping the 4 1/4" mark on the centre I could see that I had the right size.

I did the same thing for the corners, just using a smaller portion of the block.

Then it was just a question of working around the top, right? Except of course, I didn't want to have any of the same fabrics touching or being diagonally opposite or even near each other and it took me hours and hours to rearrange everything to my satisfaction.

 I had to put all the bits on the design wall before they could be sewn, and I lost count of the times I took everything to the machine so carefully and then rotated the colours as I sewed them together. Then it was either unpicking them and starting again, which was impossible once they were trimmed, or moving everything else around until the mistake fitted in. I spent more time trying to sew these half blocks than the rest of the blocks put together.

 Finally I just had to  abandon my 'rules' and be happy with however the fabrics ended up or I would have driven myself mad. I always thought I was fairly relaxed about this sort of thing, but apparently it matters more to me than I thought. Perhaps I didn't have enough variety of fabrics, so there wasn't as much choice about what went where, but in the end I was happy with the way it turned out..

I like the fact that the star seems to be the block now, instead of the windmill shape that you actually sew. I would do this again, but next time at least I'll know what to expect!