Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Rapid fire lemoyne star tool and pot holder quilt exchange

A few months ago on one of my trips to Good Wives quilt shop, the shop girls were making some lemoyne star blocks.  There was a goofy tool they used to make the blocks and it didn't make any sense
to me because I am not a big ruler fan.  But those star blocks looked so nice in the center.....
It bugged me for a couple weeks because I liked those star blocks and it was "needling" me
how well they turned out.

You might have guessed on my next trip over, I bought the ruler.  Other projects were calling me and
the new tool sat around waiting for me to open it.  So this new book comes on the scene and many of
you have seen it on blogs or have your own copy.  It features the history of potholder quilts and how
they were made for civil war soldiers. (It is a great quilt history book, by the way.) Our applique group decided to make a little group pot holder quilt and in September, eight of us will exchange completed six inch finished squares to make a small potholder runner.

What a fine time for me to try out the Rapid Fire star tool for my block choice since you can make Lemoyne star blocks from 3" up to 12" with one ruler.  I must say my first run thru reading the directions had me scratching my head and even my first block took some time following along, but once made.........I was hooked.

I made my eight blocks and a couple more for good measure.  It was fun and they met in the middle quite well.  I think with more practice, I could even do better and that will be for another time.  If you are interested, you can look this ruler up online and follow a youtube demo to see if you would like
to invest in one.  I give it a thumbs up!
Here is the start of my small potholder exchange.  I am doing simple machine quilting on my blocks.
It will be fun to see which blocks the ladies make for this.  We aren't keeping any secrets and can
follow each others progress every meeting.  It will be fun come September to trade our blocks.
I'm excited!