My Friendship Stars

You may not know it, but the blog title has a double meaning. Friendship Stars (a variation block) are one of the selected blocks I’ve been making throughout the year as we move from color to color every month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  My FAVORITE friendship stars this week are two little girls, as you’ll see momentarily.

First, let’s talk about the stars I sewed. All 42 of them. All these blue FS’s bring me up to a total of 122 blocks. I will need a (revised) total of 136 for the quilt I’m planning, which has been downsized. I will make at least a dozen each of pink and orange as their months come along, so I will have wiggle room to edit blocks that aren’t really doing it for me. Like maybe those wildly-printed stars with leftover banjo fabric.

And yet, they may not be the butt-ugliest. We will have to wait and see.....  These blocks finish at 6” each.  I have to send a big cyber hug and many thanks to Cathy at Sane, Crazy Crumby Quilting for suggesting that using the EZ angle ruler might be a better and faster way to make my HSTs. She was right, of course, and it's thanks to her that I got all these done. Some of those damn banjo HSTs, which were trimming leftovers, have been sitting around for 2 years since I made THIS quilt for DH.

Linking up to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday for our weekly Rainbow Scrap Challenge party. Stop by and see all the creativity in blue!

Anyway, with the remaining banjo HST’s, I made these 4 blocks:

I may sew them together in one giant block, or use them individually. Either way, they will become parts for kennel quilts, because if I never see this fabric again, it will be too soon.

As diversionary sewing from all the blue and banjos, I worked on my pineapples. I really love the green chevron fabric (what I had left of it) in the pineapple crowns....

I need a total of 24 pineapples, so these will continue to provide sewing refreshment, just like the real thing.

And as for my favorite Friendship Stars? These two seven-and-a-half-year-olds:

Left: Zoe   Right: London

Cousin Kim and her granddaughter Zoe came over Friday to play with me and my granddaughter London. In the morning we went to Wheeler Farm, a local working historic farm where I worked for 4 years. (See all my many posts under the keywords Wheeler Farm). We took wagon rides, visited the animals, saw a blacksmith demonstration, the girls got to brush down a cow (it wasn’t milking time), and played on the playground. We walked all over, and I got to visit with several of my former co-workers.

Kim and I noticed how similar our girls’ skin coloring was (olive), as well as their brown hair (long, with golden highlights, both with braids at that point), light blue-gray eyes, and long skinny legs. We decided they could be sisters. That delighted them to no end (they were holding hands within five minutes of meeting each other - oh to be seven again!). Naturally, then then decided they were TWINS.

We got back to my house at noonish, had lunch (picnic on the patio), then they alternated doing art projects indoors and swimming in the kiddie pools outdoors. Kim and I sat with them outside, in the shade of the apricot tree, with our feet in the pool. It was such a wonderful, relaxing day. We got NO sewing done and I didn’t get my hair cut - we were too sweaty, tired and lazy after the farm excursion. We did chat, drink iced coffee, and laughed with the girls. Kim took some great pix of the girls at the farm, and I hope she sends them to me so I can share one or two. I only got this one above, late in the day....

We are going to do this again in a couple weeks. I think it will probably take that long for Kim and I to recover.....