starry starry night

Having got ' 50 paper pieced stars', now on number 3 and finally getting the centre piecing a bit more accurate
Seems that you must STOP exactly at end of sewing line on paper and then it became less of a struggle to line up, pin and match..aha
            
                                                     Number 1

Number 2, not very matchy in the middle at all

Number 3...yey, matching in the middle

Decided to celebrate, taught  Robyn how to make cinder toffee which she crunched away on whilst carving the pumpkin.  

Yellow Yellow

 Recently inspired by this simple old quilt

Decided to do a white + 1 colour ( mainly! ) quilt

Chose Ohio star block 

And hexagons appliqued on

Funky half triangle border

Now, just wondering how to do final border.........just got Carol Doak's paper pieced star book, but the CD was  a video of how to paper piece, I thought it would be like the CD with her other paper pieced block book where you can print resize etc....instead had to jam the book under the photocopier etc.........grrrr. 

Was thinking of adding 4 different stars at corners.....tried this one
I have great difficulty with piecing star centres, at least this way you do it via 4 blocks, which is easier to achieve

Maybe I will try it smaller in just white/yellow....hmmm, have to think now..........

Its FREEZING today in UK, winter winds arrived, time for more quilts on the beds folks

pom pom trim cushion palaver

Saw some LOVELY cushions edged with pom pom trim
How difficult can that be I said to myself?
A: quite difficult

Because......
Working with a nightmare faux taffeta my daughter chose for her bedroom , all slidy aroundy the placey. Nasty.
What is the trick to sewing the pom pom braid on, I have integral IDT, and I tried zipper foot, no good, then open foot, a little better...but those darn poms kept dashing under my needle just to get me!I got my own back by spearing a few.They have to know who is boss.
 After battling with one side, had to eat 4 chocolate biscuits to regain morale
Any hints from anyone au fait with the pom pom trim  tricks, let me have your tips please?

and just to show you those darn pom poms, grrrr

liberty print scrap cushion

Inspired by this pretty autumnal project on cluck cluck sew ( thanks cluckcluck!
pillow.htmlhttp://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/10/tutorial-scrap-buster-fall-pillow.html
Thought I could use my liberty lawn  charms  which  I had bought to cover decoupage birdies
They are not my first choice of fabric as they are rather muted  - but they seemed to be right for the falling leaves

Still cautiously learning applique, so used raw edge with a simple straight stitch at a short  1.5 length

What did I learn?
1. Do not fuse edges of the bondaweb to ironing board, especially if you have just bought nice new clean one
2. Leaves all needed cutting down as I had made them too large for my cushion front  18" square
3. Having arranged all the leaves in satisfactory pattern on the front piece on the floor, somewhat of a challenge to pick it all up onto ironing board without leaves a falling before they should
4. Should have left a bit more space above and below to allow for seams not getting too close to the motif