Little projects finished

I've had a couple of weeks of finishing a few things, interspersed with periods of no sewing. I've finally completed a tea cosy and table runner set that is part of an upcoming silent auction for my sons' school. I used 2 inch strips of b/w fabrics with squares and rectangles of bright prints. The runner finishes at 16 by 64 (from point to point) and has a black solid backing that I brought to the front for the binding. My friend Val machine quilted it in a swirly pattern -- thanks very much! (My old Elna is wonderful except I can't drop the feed dogs and even with covering them I can't seem to get the hang of machine quilting.)

Here's my latest square for the Friday Block Party. This was easier than many, since it only had the HSTs to worry about. My precision piecing is getting better. A friend commented that these precision blocks aren't my usual style -- that's what makes them interesting. I can manage one a week, and I'm getting better with HSTs and the quarter inch thing. That can only be good, even if I prefer wonkiness and free-piecing and scrappy. I'm building skills and following rules for an hour a week, and the rest of the time, I'm doing what I want.

Like these wonky stars, made from leftover triangles from my friend Andrea. I was helping her manage her scraps and she didn't want these. There were exactly 16, just enough to make two wonky stars for the Australian Bushfire quilt project (see sidebar.) I pieced the centres from leftovers after we cut most of Andrea's leftover 2.5 inch strips into 4.5 inch bricks for a scrappy Chinese Coin quilt.

Here's four more in brights. The print in the bottom left star is 60 inches wide. I bought about 90 inches of it so I can back a single quilt with it (it was $5/metre) and I cut off five inches to use in these stars.