Crumb-Along - Week 2 (Stars n' Hearts)

This week, we're making stars and hearts.  Jo's pictorial and instructions are posted here.

So far my only complaint is that they weren't posted at 3:00 am - when I had a bout of insomnia.  Just kidding!  Jo is doing an amazing job of leading, encouraging and contributing to the delinquency of quilters and all while she's celebrating two new additions to her family: Betty (a sassy little featherweight) and Mildred (a sturdy reliable Singer).  I hope they are sleeping through the night.  Congratulations Jo!

The Crumblers have begun uploading pics of their blocks to the Crumb Along Group Pool on Flickr and visiting each others' blogs (especially those linked at the bottom of Jo's instruction posts) and leaving encouraging comments.  (Don't forget to check your comment settings Crumblers.)

My approach to crumb quilting is to grab a handful of crumbs and not worry about the colours.  There's a real hodge-podge here: country, civil war repros, brights, novelties.  I figure it will all work out in the end.  When I have enough blocks made, I'll put them on the design wall and see if I need more of a particular colour at that time.  I had fun with the heart blocks.  I started out cautiously and made two red ones.

Then I made a pink one.

I think this is my favourite one.

And I made two stars.  They went together so slick!  I'm really pleased with how wonky they are.  I stayed away from my cutting mat, my ruler and my rotary cutter this time and it worked perfectly!  I even stayed away from the iron, proceeded by finger pressing, so the trips to the ironing board were few and far between.

I can see myself making a lot more of the star blocks.  They were a lot of fun, and the seams butted into place without pressing.  I only stopped at this point because I had promised myself I could get started on the string quilt blocks.  I went fishing in my 2" strip bin and pulled out a red, a yellow, and an orange strip to get started.  And when I couldn't decide on one, I just shrugged and used them all.

And I got 6 string blocks made in hardly any time at all.  Donna had suggested starching my foundation fabrics and that worked like a dream!  A pic of the quilt I'm going to make and Donna's advice for proceeding on the string blocks w/ 9patches is here.

The clean up phase.  Honestly, if I didn't have so many UFOs that need finishing, labeling, binding, etc, I think I'd just leave the crumbs and strings out and keep having fun.  But I have a list of must-do work and a pile on my kitchen table waiting for it`s turn at the sewing machine.  The rather optimistic deadline I`ve set for this work is this weekend.  So I reluctantly put a stop to the new blocks.  Would you believe my string box is big enough to accomodate both bags of finished blocks!

And here, it's all back on the shelf and waiting for my next crumbing session.

I think my cat ate a few fabric snippets off the floor, he's been walking around clearing his throat for the last half hour.