Paper Piecing Problem!

Well I did manage a bit of sewing for my Christmas Quiltalong project but I did have a bit of a  panic in the process.

I'd had a lovely day out with my better half, taking advantage of a rare fine day to go up into the dales for a bit of shopping and a scenic drive. I got home and decided to do some quick foundation paper pieceing as I had left everything prepared on Thursday. I started well but part way through the first of 3 blocks I suddenly realised I didn't have a lot of my green fabric left. I really thought I wouldn't have enough. I hadn't been paying much attention to cutting pieces carefully - big mistake!

I had to photocopy my paper pattern and cut out templates for the pieces and needed then arrange and rearrange them on the fabric to try to cut enough pieces. It took a lot of fiddling but I just made it - with very little to spare, phew! I finally managed to complete one block before it was time for tea. The star had 4 foundation pieces:

 I found the original star design in an issue of a French magazine 'Elena Patchwork' several years ago and re-drew it using Electric Quilt. EQ is so useful for experimenting with designs like this. You can easily re-size them and try out different block arrangements and colour schemes. My table runner will have three stars separated by the chequerboard stips I made a couple of days ago:

OK it looks a bit messy now but I'll be hard at work tomorrow to get it finished! I'll also post the Electric Quilt file for those of you with the software.

Don't forget to head over to Quit Times to see a list of everyone participating in the Christmas Quiltalong.

"/>