Diamond Stars

In the evenings, in order to justify my junk television viewing, I work on hand pieced things. These are English paper-pieced stars made with diamond shapes. The outer circle will be filled in with six more of the light stars with dark backgrounds.Eventyally it will be a table topper. I have limited myself to Daiwabo taupe fabrics. Yes, I know,there is purple and pink and blue and green in there, but they are all Daiwabo and considered "taupe." I think that just means that they are subdued in color.

These were made in the conventional way - basting the fabric to cardstock templates, then whip stitching together. Recently I purchased a  Sewline Fabric Glue Pen after seeing it advertised in a Piece o' Cake email. The glue pen will be used in lieu of basting. It will be a test to see if it works as well as basting and if it is easier and faster. I have begun using Bottom Line Thread from Superior Threads to whip stitch the pieces together. It is very fine and stronger than cotton in that it doesn't fray or break after repeatedly pulling it through the basted pieces. Being as fine as it is, it also shows much less on the front.

This month's main block of The Fox has Spots BOM by my local quilt shop. The color is a bit funky because there is a piece of turquoise fabric behind part of the block. I am catching up a bit and also completed last month's optional block from the same BOM:

Here are all the completed blocks to date laid out on the floor. They are making a pretty happy looking picture, I think.