Swapping Stars

Another great swap in in the works.  Barb, from Fun with Barb hosts swaps every so often and I always try to join in.  This time was no exception, even though I knew I would be under some pressure to hit the deadline.  I signed up for making 40 blocks using 1800's reproductions prints.  Here is a sampling of my stars. 

This piece has been in my stash since 2004.  I bought yards of this when I came to the US.  I didn't know anything about 1800s reproduction fabrics, but I was drawn to them immediately. I used this for curtains in my first place here.

Barb sends out very clear instructions and parameters for her swap and that is why I love doing them.  I trust the workmanship of the participants and know that I will be getting back good blocks.

In the process of making my stars, I dug through a bag of these.  Over 100 - 6 1/2" churn dash blocks from a previous swap. 

They have been patiently waiting to become a quilt top.  I've started adding sashing on one side of each block and I have the fabric for the corner posts.

thank goodness I've started adding notes to my boxes, and bags of projects.  That is a game changer when you get back into something from over a year ago.  Counts are there, color notes, cutting measurements, etc

I only had to make 29 more blocks, per my notes.  Since I had out scraps of muslin and a variety of reproduction prints were stacked up on the cutting table, I got busy moving this project forward a little bit.

Now that I have all the blocks made, a pile of muslin scraps folded up in the bag, a few sketches of ideas, this will be a perfect project to take to retreat at the end of the month.  Lets hope I don't take this long to put the star swap blocks into a top.
Keep stitching,
Sharon