Rolling Compass Star

In addition to Carol Doak's stars, I've also been a bit addicted to wombatquilts.com lately.  The page has some beautiful squares posted; the quilt blocks' colors are cheerful (and they pop quite nicely); and there are free paper-piecing patterns!  I found this Rolling Star pattern on Wombat's page, but it's originally found here.

This is the last of my 12" blocks.  Now all of my 12" andd 18" blocks are finished; I only have the (hopefully) simple 6" stars left.  Of course, I'll need to figure out whether I'm going to add any sashing (and, if so, what color fabric I can throw in) before I can assemble anything.

Still, there's a chance that I'll finish the quilt before summer!

12" Interlocking Seasons Quilt Block

In addition to completing two blocks this weekend (two blocks!), I'm on to the set of blocks that don't even have to be re-sized!  Needless to say, my geometrist-in-residence is pretty excited about this.

Interlocking Seasons - Google Images provides some really cool color combinations for this guy

There's a great tutorial for the Interlocking Seasons block here; just make sure that your quarter-inch seams are exact.

18" Illinois Star Quilt Block

So, I'm mildly obsessed with Carol Doak's 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars.  I found it at our local library, and promptly decided that I needed to make something like 75% of the quilt blocks.  Ali wisely suggested that maybe I should pare this stupid ambitious plan down, so I'm starting with just one block  for my picnic/sampler quilt.  That block is the Illinois block (all of the 50 stars pick up a state name from the book).

Illinois Quilt Block

This one gave me a bit more grief than the last square; someday I'm going to just accept the fact that there will be a ton of fabric that goes to waste when paper piecing.  I currently try to use small scraps and inevitably have to unpick and resew everything when my fabric doesn't have enough overlap.  Someday, I may even learn which corners have to match when I'm sewing large sections of the block together.  That day will be an awesome, awesome day.

Even with all of my mistakes, this block still is my (new) favorite.  Do I say that every block?  Regardless, this thing is gorgeous.

Only two 12" squares until I get to make all the easy, little blocks.

Delectable Mountains Block

One more 18" block for the picnic quilt down!  Only one more giant block to go!!

The pattern is here:  www.mccallsquilting.com/patterns/details.html?idx=8016

It went off with only two small hitches (one geometry related and one I-can't-sew-straight related).  Now that  the cold temperatures are back, I might even finish another block before November's up.