I've been using a variety of patches for my leader-enders recently. As I come to the end of one pile of cut out pieces, I move on to the next. I am unable to just cut the thread anymore, it feels so wrong not to have  a leader-ender to sew onto. They do build up into quite a pile of finished units, so it's worth persevering with the concept, even if it seems strange at first. Now I need to spend a couple of hours cutting out more of everything I need, and restocking shapes. 

I'm making red and light hst for a split nine patch somewhere down the track and brown hst for my brown broken dishes units, which can be used any number of ways.

Hour Glass blocks for the border of my star top

and the four patches for this block.

All these little blocks were 2 1/2" unfinished so I could sew them together in a random setting, but I won't. These are all spoken for, but it might be fun to do this with orphan bits one day.

Here's something I haven't seen before. At the supermarket I found a farm ute parked, with these three waiting for the owner to return. The dogs were treating the lamb like one of the pack, and I'm sure in his mind he thinks he's a dog. He had his own  collar and chain and was pushing the dogs around to get where he wanted to go.

Obviously an orphan raised with these two mates, and he seemed quite used to riding in the back of the vehicle too. I know from experience that orphan lambs can have a hard time adjusting to the idea of being " just a sheep"; I wonder what will happen to this chap when he gets too big to be lifted into the tray...

Spellcheck didn't like the word 'ute'. It's an abbreviation for 'utility' and is a common vehicle in Australia. (I think the American truck or pickup is  heavier and larger) The Aussie ute is a great vehicle, and Keryn and I often wish we had one, they're so useful. However Dolly and Pippi would probably rather be riding inside than chained up in the back!

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 This will be terribly boring visually, because all these photos look the same, but I wanted to show how I set the blocks together when they're on point. The idea of all those looong dreary rows makes me want to scream, so I join a big hunk of the middle squares together as a straight set.

This top has eight stars across and nine down, so I had  to make it a funny rectangular shape instead of a square.

Then I join the rest of the blocks into the corner triangles

and sew the bottom right hand corner to the centre first,

then the bottom left corner,

the upper left,

and finally the upper right. I left that seam to the last because it's the shortest, and I figured the top would be so cumbersome by that stage that it would be easier to deal with.

I'd made twelve stars with dark centres, quite unintentionally, and when I realised this I grouped them in the middle of the top, rather than trying to distribute them evenly throughout.

Finally! I can now take this off the design wall and start piecing the border units, which will probably take a while. I'll put up another set of blocks so I can be thinking about how to finish the next project.... Oh, I  do love moving things along like this!

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When I said in the last post that I didn't mind clipping the dog ears on HST it reminded me of what I like to do with them.

I wrote about my bear jar here, back in 2009, and I've been filing my tiny triangle clippings there ever since. I thought he was  nearly full about three years ago, but I keep squashing the bits down and making more room. I'm beginning to doubt he can ever be filled to capacity!

It's a harmless diversion for me, and at least the bits aren't being tracked all over the house  as they were in the past. But heavens, nearly six years of sewing are represented here, I reckon it will take another two or three years to get to the brim....

Anyhoo, the HST have taken a backseat again and I've moved on to setting a long term project into a top. Last year in March I started playing around with Ohio stars, and I've been steadily making them over the last 15 months or so.

I've made enough of the green and cream ones seen in that post to make a full size quilt, and I had nearly enough of the ones with the dark background. My inspiration for that idea was a quilt

 found in this book, American Quilt Classics by Patricia Cox.

I think I was inspired by the fact that we had a half bolt of a Jo Morton fabric that I thought would be perfect for the setting squares.

So off I went, madly making stars, and then was slightly disappointed to find that the fabric seemed to suck all the life out of the other colours.

I really wanted to use this particular  material- we had lots of it! In desperation I kept using deeper and darker colours so that they would stand out against the fabric, and I became more and more dissatisfied with how it was looking. It's amazing how long we cling  to some ideas, even though they're obviously not working.

Finally I realised "Just get rid of that fabric!" and I started to search for the 'perfect' setting material. The first fabric was too brown, so I've been buying fat quarters of all sorts of yellowy caramel,  yellowy tan, yellowy brown in hopes of finding "The One". Keryn will bear witness to how much angst has been involved in this; she is heartily sick of the Star Sagas and can hardly wait to see this in one piece!

Finally, I tried this, without much hope, and when I laid the stars on it everything just settled in to place.

I never would have picked it in the first place, and if I had access to more patchwork shops I still might have found something better. But it's good enough! The top has four more seams to sew, and I can start whining about the border choices, that should be fun...

Recently I was going through an old Quilt magazine when I saw this photo. Could it be... yes there is the same pink and red star on the right hand side. The setting fabric looks completely different, and there is no border at all. Mine will have at least one, just not sure what at this stage... Stay tuned!

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 Dianne asked what ruler I use to cut my triangles. It all depends on the scraps I'm using I suppose.

Recently I went through the 2 1/2" strip drawer and weeded out some shorter lengths to make a bit of room. I cut these up using the Easy Angle, which makes quick work of this chore. I cut a heap of light strips too, but I obviously need more...

They get stacked on a small tray and that lives on a shelf next to the sewing machine, just in case I need an emergency leader-ender pair. (I usually have some specific project for a leader-ender, but I've been known to run out of cut pieces.)

If however, the scrap isn't a strip or is an odd shape, I really love using the ScrapSaver by Judy Hopkins.

 Sadly, Judy died in 2011, but it seems that you can get the ScrapMaster which is almost the same from here. I get a lot of gifted scraps, and I've used this over the years to easily cut them into usable shapes.

These were some triangle offcuts from a TriRecs ruler or something like that, so the angle wasn't 45 degrees.

By placing the ruler over them I can see that I can cut a 2 7/8" triangle with a little bit to spare.

I make the first cut along the edge of the ruler,

then I turn it around and reposition the corner of the ruler over the scrap, making sure that the 2 7/8" line is on the previously cut edge

 and cut the 90 degree angle.

Sometimes I think a scrap is too small to use, but I can see straight away whether I can get a certain size triangle from it.

Dianne also mentioned the dog ears, but they don't worry me. When I've sewn and pressed a heap of triangles I get a cup of coffee and a small pair of  sharp scissors and by the time I've finished my drink I've trimmed all the pointy bits off. I don't like making HST oversize and cutting them down- I find that I sew accurately enough (after thousands of seams!) to get the results I want first time around.

 (But if the cutting down works for you, that's fine too. We all have our own methods of working...)

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