Spooky All Points Patchwork Blog Hop!

This is the Halloween leg of the All Points Patchwork book tour...
Diane has really made this super fun, pulling together English Paper Piecers for different themed challenges month after month.  All week people have been showing off their Halloween themed EPP projects and today it's my turn:

Halloween Pentagon Table Runner

A couple years back, when I met my friend Eri, she was working on a blue and white pentagon pattern, alternating two fabrics and piecing together rings of 10 shapes each.  I was deep in a hexie addiction at the time and couldn't quite understand what you would do with all these little rings of pentagons, but filed the idea away under "cool" in my mental library and decided to try it when I had a chance.

Rings of pentagons, it so happens, are AWESOME for fussy cutting cute novelty prints.  I even played with stripes, which I'm not that comfortable with.

I made a bunch of rings from 1.5" and 1" pentagons and started playing around with layouts.  The boys helped, of course.

Once I had them where I wanted them, I marked a ring with my white marking pencil (I love that thing), removed the templates, gave each ring a good press, and pinned it into place.

Then, staying very close to the edge of the pentagons, I top stitched them into place by machine.  I stitched around the inner ring and up and down the points on the outside, removing pins as I went.

Once they were all securely stitched on, I layered, pinbasted, and quilted in "organic" crosshatch circle-ish things.  I like the light thread on the dark background, and I like how the round shapes play with the pentagon rings, but.. I think I might want to add some perle cotton stitches in fun colors somewhere too.  I've got 2 weeks til Halloween, we'll see what I come up with.

So that's it!  My contribution to the All Points Patchwork Halloween Hop.  If you haven't checked out a copy of All Points Patchwork, please treat yourself and do so!  The book is absolutely beautiful and full of ideas for how to add even small bits of English Paper Piecing to every area of your life.  Make sure to visit the other Halloween Hop crafters.. there's tons to learn and see in the links below~

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Monday Morning Start Count, October 12, 2013

This is where I'm at with the pentagon runner.  My day for the Halloween Blog Hop is Friday, so please come back and see how much it changes before then.

Monday Morning Star Count, October 5, 2015

Post and pics coming soon.  I have lots to say, but first, the linky:

Monday Morning Star Count, September 14, 2015

Happy Monday, All~

Have you been stitching?  My pentagons are increasing slowly, I've got 4 rings and I'm pondering layout..

I need some greens I think,  and more orange.  Do you like the lighter or more saturated rings?  My gut tells me to make more and then see how to balance them (but life seems to give me that sort of advice about a lot of things..) Which brings me to a nice transition--- Life has tossed me some rather large stepping stones in the past few months and even when I have nothing to do, I've got a lot to think about.  I try not to let these thoughts encroach on my quilting time (in fact, my super wonderful therapist suggests that I keep quilting to stay centered..) but they do get in the way of blogging.  It's so much easier to toss progress pics up on instagram than to sort through my feelings and ideas and pull something eloquent together to say in a blog post about a couple hours of sewing.  Sometimes there just are no words, you know?  Thank you, the few of you who have reached out to check up on me in the weeks I've missed Star Count.  It really means a lot to know I've got this nice community of close friends, acquaintances, and dedicated quilters who notice when I'm not there.  I am here, and I will be ok.  Well, actually I'm better than ok, most days, all considering.  But somehow it seems it's always Sunday into Monday that finds me weepy or struggling a bit, and that's making it hard for me to want to cloud the Internet with more tough feelings.  Especially my blog, which is supposed to be the highlight reel of life, no?  I swear, so much of what I struggle with is how honest I can be, what I ought to say, to feel I'm staying true to myself yet also maintaining a "public" persona of super mom/wonder quilter.  Guys, you know that's not true, right? 
I would like to write here from a place more authentic, especially since I'm making and sharing quilts,  which are basically soft scrapbooks,  a window to my soul and a colorful account of where I've been, all I've seen and done.  Even without words, a knowing eye will see where I'm at, and for those with less access to the backstories, my quilts certainly provide lots to ponder if you're curious.  
I want to tell the stories of my quilts on this blog, but right now I'm struggling with how much to say, what to reveal, and some days I just can't fake happiness when life isn't giving me much.  There are many small wonderful moments though,  and I'm still sorting out which of those I want to keep private and which I can share.  It's getting easier to see the difference and I appreciate those of you who stick around to read whatever shows up in this space.  You give me lots of encouragement to keep sewing, to keep thinking and make me wonder if maybe this can be a safe place to unload and work through my thoughts...  I really appreciate that.

So, here's the link up.   What have you been stitching?  And if you want to share, what have those stitches helped you get through this week?  Xoxoxox

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Monday Morning Star Count, August 24, 2015

This weekend I spent time cutting patches for a new project-- Pentagons.
I'm working on something for the All Points Patchwork Halloween blog hop.  It's turning out super cute so far, I'm really excited.

 

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Monday Morning Star Count, June 15th

I spent so much time on the Spider Web this past week that I haven't even touched Travel Quilt #5.  While tearing apart the sewing room for appropriate binding fabric though, I finally found my 1.5" pentagon templates which I'm going to use for my project in Diane Gilleland's All Points Patchwork blog hop, the Halloween portion.

Yes, I've got months, but I still can't find my Halloween prints and I want to get working on it soon.  The project concept is solid, but the actual design and fabric placement is still up in the air so I want to make some units and get my ideas in order, you know?

I was so happy to see such a nice response to my MMSC link up revival.  You guys are awesome, and some of you have been sewing up a storm!  If you haven't seen everyone's links from last week, scroll down to the post.  If you've got some progress to show (even if it's just finding a pack of templates!), tell us about it and how it makes you feel.  Can't wait to see who joins up this week~

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