Christmas Break Days 10 and 11

 Day 10 of the girls' Christmas Break was New Years Day.  It was also Sunday so we went to church.  It was a good day, just everyone home for the day and eating the yummy food for the special welcome of 2012.
Day 11 was Monday, the last day of their break.  We made it!!  Kelsey has been wanting to go to work with Matt for a year or so, so she took the chance on Monday.  She had a good day and loved watching Matt do surgeries all morning, but by the afternoon she was a bit bored. I told her to take a book, but I am pretty sure she played on Matt's computer all afternoon!  Either way, both of them enjoyed the time together.

 That meant that Emmitt and Kendal were here with me, and of course making blanket huts, playing farm, and getting along really well.  That meant I got to sew!  I am a bit behind in the friendship blocks I need to make for quilt guild, so I got busy.  Beth wants a 10 inch red star with white background.  Here is what I did:


First I drew a star on a 10 inch square of freezer paper.  I then cut out the star into 9 pieces.  I found nice fat quarters of red and white fabrics in my stash, and ironed them.  I then placed the two fat quarters together, one one top of the other, and arranged the 9 star pieces of freezer paper on top.  The great thing about freezer paper is that it sticks when ironed, so I ironed my freezer paper pattern onto the fat quarters, making sure to leave at least a 1/2 inch in between the pieces.
 

Then I cut out the pieces leaving 1/4 inch seam allowance on all the inside edges.  You can leave a 1/4 inch on all sides of the pieces, but I wanted to have more red as a borderish look.
I removed the red pieces of the actual 4 star pieces, so it left the last layer of white as the star.

Then I moved the white outside pieces to match up with the red star.  Now I have two blocks that are exact opposites of each other that need to be sewn.  The best way to sew them together is to do it in sections of 3; the top 3, the bottom left corner 3, and then the remaining 3.

 Here are the two blocks I ended up with.  This one is for Beth, she wanted a red star and a white background.

This is the second, extra block.  I am not sure what I will do with it, but oh well!

 The other friendship block I needed to make was for Leah.  She wanted a 12 1/2 inch snowman block.  This is what I came up with.  I used a pattern from a magazine I had kept from a few years ago, then just added what I wanted to make her look a bit whimsical.  I still have a few more friendship blocks I need to catch up on, but at least I have a few to deliver to quilt guild this week!