Oh My Stars! quilt along. Extra blocks 16, 17, 18.

When last I posted about the Oh My Stars! quilt along, I thought I had finished making all the blocks required.   Then I read the section about assembling the blocks into a top and I discovered that another quilter had requested a layout that would allow for a queen-sized quilt.

I really don't need more twin-sized quilts (which the original layout was for), so I decided to continue making stars to accommodate the queen-sized layout.  I searched the internet for more/different Sawtooth star variations ... there are a million of them! .. and chose 4 that I liked.

First up is called "Make Mine a Double Please".  This lovely star was created by Jovita Goldschmidt of Jovita's Patchwork Atelier in celebration and anticipation of the impending birth of twins.  (In a tragic occurrence, she and her husband lost the twins shortly after birth.) 

I was drawn to this block, not only because it's just pretty, but I also have twin girls (now 23 years old).

Then came "Shimmering Star".  Although Oh My Stars! already had a block by this name, this is a different layout. 

This Shimmering Star layout was designed by Carole Hennell of Ewes Quilting and is part of her Jewel quilt along.

Last came the "Martha Washington Star" block, also created by Carole Hennell as part of her Jewel quilt along.

The 4" size blocks for both the Shimmering Star and Martha Washington Star were real buggers!  Some of the pieces were very small.





For this entire project, 12", 8" and 4" blocks were used.  The original 15 blocks had cutting measurements for those sizes included in the directions.   But for the blocks that *I* added, I needed to figure out the measurements myself.  Thank goodness for Electric Quilt!  I simply drafted each block and then printed it out in the correct size.  Sometimes the measurements were a tad awkward ... like 1-1/4" minus a 1/16th!  but instead of figuring out what THAT measurement was, I just cut the 1-1/4", then sliced off a sliver.  Even if that procedure wasn't accurate, it worked well for me (and saved a few brain cells in the process!).

I had originally used a small stash of Christmas-themed fabric, along with coordinating solids.  The fabrics weren't always red & green ... some were predominately other colors, but they all were Christmasy in look and feel.   Well, when I started to make these last blocks, I realized that I was seriously OUT of this stash; I couldn't make the 12" blocks at all (since they required the most fabric) and only a few of the smaller blocks.

BUT, the attraction of making a scrappy project is that it really DOES NOT MATTER if you start mixing in other fabrics late in the game.  It was all going to be scrappy anyway!  Additionally, I knew that the layout for this quilt mixed all the different sizes so that not only were you varying the sizes but the fabrics used.  Eventually, I found some more compatible, but not necessarily Christmas-themed, fabric to use.

Ya know?  I'm really glad all the blocks are finally made!  Next up: assembling all the blocks into sections.