Sneaky sewing

I did get a chance to sneak in some sewing.... I did make an attempt at shoveling, but I got so cold that I came in for a while to warm up. Now, it's raining (pray the ice dams don't send the water inside), so I decided after making my daughter and gs some pizza, I'd sneak upstairs and play. 

I've been working on something I saw in Quilter's NewsletterMagazine March 2001 (my aunt tends to send hers my way when she's done with them). Notice the date? Don't run out and try to find this one ladies. (The only reason I had it was because I loved the pattern on the front cover. Beautiful... "California Reel"... has a design that encorporates a snail tail design-like part of it. It's done in blue/purple, yellow-orange fabrics.)

 On page 26, there is instructions for free-form stars. They looked really neat against black, but I thought I'd do something 'radical'. Kind of a blue-y, purple-y, brown-y-ish background, but making the stars out of batik-y yellow-orangey fabrics. Check out my background fabric on top of the page (upper left). It's cool. Trust me.

And then to add the oranges I had in my stash.... (I liked going through that box). I decided to substitute the center purple square for an orange fabric.

I used a 12.5" square, but didn't divide it equally. I kind of split it at 5", then divided what was left, wherever. 

Using scrap/chunks of the yellow-oranges, this is the first block I made. Not bad. I like it. 

I love 'spider-webbing' the pieces to make the block. 

I don't usually iron it until I'm done putting the (rough) 9-patch together.

Here is the star, finished. I think I'm gonna like this pattern and choice of fabrics. (Oh, if you are interested, the one on the right was a workshop to make the center medallion- I added the black on to square, actually rectangle, it up).

Here are a few of the blocks. I have 10 squares of the background cut up so far (even though it doesn't end up 12.5" square, more like 11.5" sq.), and enough material (background) to make a few borders along the outside. I have a peachy fabric for a narrow border, then the background as outer borders, and I may use squares of yellow/orange as cornerstones. I'll post more photos when I get it done.