It wouldn’t be Christmas (or a Christmas quilt) without a star. 

The eleventh block released for this quilt-a-long was designed by Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing. You can find the pattern here on her post. Remember these patterns are free until January 15, 2018. Don’t delay, download yours today.

I found this star block to be beautiful but challenging. I had trouble and ripped apart many seams more than four times. I’ve read on our QAL Facebook page that a lot of other quilters had been encountering some difficulties, too. I felt in good company.

Let’s begin at the beginning. It seemed like a no-brainer to substitute some ric rac for the piping.  Those 4 blocks went together easily and quickly.

The center square in a square came together flawlessly. And I even managed to create some bonus HSTs for a future project.

But the star points were a whole different matter. I’ve done paper piecing several times before but for some reason my blocks kept turning out backwards and upside down. The background pieces were in the places where the star parts were to be. Through trial and error over the better parts of two days, I found I had made only three star points that were usable out of the eight that I needed and had lots of others that could not be used but were added to the scrap bin. I read the tips on the other host blogs but wanted to stick with the paper piecing. I am not defeated easily. The pics below will show how I solved my dilemma.

With Thanksgiving approaching, I set the block aside for a few days. Ok. More than a few days.

I started again on Monday but things still did not click and after ripping and trying several times, I put it away.

Tuesday morning turned out to be a new day.

I picked up the pieces. Something clicked. I figured if I was ending up with pieces that were backward and upside down, I’d start that way and hope that I’d end up with correct pieces. I decided to try using the piece marked for the right side for the left side of the star since I don’t turn my papers upside down to sew the seam but rather sew them from the right side.

And within 20 minutes a star was born! 

All I know is it worked! All I can figure out is that the left and right sides are mirrored copies. 

It will be interesting to read what Kathleen, the pattern designer, has to say about my piecing method and what I missed and where I went wrong and why it still worked.

We’ve been at our Arizona winter home for almost three weeks. It’s been gorgeous here and I’ve been enjoying the sun. In fact, I walked home after my quilting group’s meeting (only about 1/2 mile) last Monday. Here’s my view from my living room and patio. 

Giveaway for completing this block

Once you’ve finished your North Star block, enter the giveaway by doing one of the following:

• post a picture on the party link on Kathleen’s blog
• post a picture on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page 
• post a picture on Instagram and tag # #iwishyouamerryqal.

Remember you have until December 4th at 11.59 PM to link or post your pic to be entered to win. It’s really not too late to start quilting a-long with us if you’re finding you’re just now getting into the spirit. I still have block one to finish and one more block to be released.

Thank you to Doohikey Designs and The Inquiring Quilter for our wonderful prizes for this block. You can find the Binding Babies website here and visit The Inquiring Quilter’s pattern store here.

 Grand Prize Alert

At the end of the QAL there will be a link to download a picture of your finished quilt. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must make a quilt top using all twelve of the QAL blocks by January 16th, 2018. Thank you to all these sponsors for prizes.

Here’s all my blocks so far.

 

To find info on where to download the patterns, view my blocks, and read some construction tips, check out my links below.

• Block 1 – Mine is coming soon. I plan to work on it today. You can find the pattern for block one-snowflake here
• Block 2 – Christmas Tree Farm here
• Block 3 – Santa’s Belt here
• Block 4 – Christmas Memories (ornaments) here
• Block 5 – Snowman here
• Block 6 – Angel here
• Block 7 – Poinsettia here
• Block 8-Presents here
• Block 9-Reindeer Games here
• Block 10-Christmas Lantern here
• Block 11- North Star here

Meet the rest of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Hosts as they reveal their version of this block

• Pretty Piney
• Sparkle On
• JANDA Bend Quilts
• Snowy Days Quilting
• Cwilt
• The Inquiring Quilter
• Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats    You are here. Thanks for stopping by.
• Slice of Pi Quilts
• SandyStar Designs
• Powered by Quilting
• Quilt in Piece
• Kathleen McMusing Here’s the creative designer behind the eleventh block. You can find her pattern and full tutorial here on her blog and find the linky party to post your finished block for a chance to win prizes.

Block Release Schedule

• Block 12 – December 5, 2017     This is the last block!!
• Setting Instructions – December 5, 2017

What I Learned Today:

1. There’s always more than one way to solve a problem! I’ve told my kids this for years.
2. If I encounter something that isn’t working, set it aside and come back to it. The lightbulb just might click on.
3. There are 24 days until Christmas.
4. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in the desert. Except at our house. No tree. No decorations inside or out. Not yet.
5. I’ve been scouting out the neighborhood and looking for some unique decorations. I’ve found some and will be posting pics of them in mid-December like I did last year.
6. Our neighbor has several volunteer cacti he wants removed so we’ll be getting a bit of new free landscaping material.

Question: What goes on top of your tree? A star? An angel? A Santa Hat? We have a star we put on our North Dakota tree but this year we’ll just throw some lights on a fake palm tree and call it good. Oh, and we’ll put a Santa hat on our little cactus here in Arizona. 

Thanks for Stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

If you enjoyed this post and would like to read more about my journey or follow me by email, Bloglovin or WordPress, please subscribe using one those options found in the sidebar on this blog, Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats.

Linking to:

Block 10 Linky Party at Kathleen McMusing

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Main Crush Mondays at Cooking Up Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt