Oh My Stars! quilt-along

You might have noticed that I have a badge over on the right for the Oh My Stars! Quilt-along.  Created by Sheila of Thought & Found blog, it's going to be a set of 15 different Sawtooth star blocks in 3 different sizes.  She also has a quilt layout that attractively distributes the variations in designs and sizes.  Sharon created her version in vintage floral quilts which caught my interest.  While I don't have any vintage floral sheets, I could still make my own blocks using fabric from my stash!

Intially, the tutorials for each star block was going to be published once a week.  This would make the project 15 weeks of construction and then however long it would take the participant to sew the blocks together and get it quilted.  I rather liked the one block a week timeframe ... it would give me the space to actually MAKE the blocks while keeping up with the other activities going on in my life.

However, at some point, Sheila decided that a 15 week project was too long and she has shortened up the timeline by publishing TWO tutorials a week.  Oh dear ... this makes keeping up with the schedule somewhat more problematic.  For each tutorial, you need to make (1) 12" block, (2) 8" blocks and (5) 4" blocks.  And now .. twice a week.  Ouch.   But .. I'm current (so far)!

The first block was the basic Sawtooth Star.  The star points are Flying Geese blocks and Sharon gives instructions how to make them using the No-Waste Method (which gives you 4 identical Flying Geese blocks .. exactly what you need for this project).  I *love* this method!  Sharon's tutorial is rather long and drawn-out ... which, I suspect, is for the very beginner and that's quite all right!  But for me, the best general *1 page* tutorial for making Flying Geese any size you want using the No-Waste Method can be found at Patchpieces.  (That link will bring up a 1 page PDF, which is just fantastic).

Because the basic Sawtooth Star was the first and I had nothing else to do that night, I just kept on making a messload of basic blocks in all the different sizes!  I hadn't quite read the instructions thoroughly and didn't realize that we only needed to make (1) 12", (2) 8" and (5) 4" blocks.  Ooops.  :-)

In reality, this excess of blocks came in very handy when one of the variations turned out to be a real PITA for the 4" size ... I just substituted some of the excess basic star blocks.  :-)

I had run across some strips of Christmas-themed fabric and decided that I would use THESE strips for my Oh My Stars! quilt.  I'm pretty sure that I was given these strips, as I know doggone well that I have never used (or seen!) these fabrics before.  :-)

So far, there have been 6 tutorials for the Sawtooth Star and 2 other informational posts.  It's been interesting for me to figure out how to use the strips of fabrics that I have to make the blocks required.   Luckily, because this is more-or-less a scrappy quilt, if I run out of fabric strips, I can simply augment with other yardage from my stash ... I really do NOT want to buy new fabric for this project.   (I'm trying very hard to 'shop my stash' these days and use what I have.  We all need to economize in our own ways.)  :-)

Then, another Sawtooth Star caught my eye .. but not from the Oh My Stars! quilt-along.  There is another quilt-along using fat quarters (Fat Quarter Stars Quilt-along), which I am NOT going to be participating in!  BUT ... one participant blogged about her finishing block #9 that was a VERY intriguing design of two small Sawtooth Stars sharing star tips!  Since this *was* a Sawtooth star and it was a 12" size .. I have decided to include this non-Oh My Stars block in my own quilt.