When Stars Align

I've been itching to clean up some of my sewing stuff that has been lying around, so of course, I did this by working on a project. I pulled out my blue and yellow star wall hanging because I knew it was close to being done. Last time I talked about it, I had put it in a time out. The final border of 1" squares did not fit.

You can see the excess length at the top that was not going to "ease in". I made the strip of squares fit by sewing some of the seams a little bigger. When I had done five seams, I tested the length against the center of the quilt and it fit, so I went with it. You might protest that all the squares are not identical in size and in fact are not even squares anymore. While that is technically true, it is not at all noticeable and does not detract from the effect. Which is good enough for me.

I sewed one strip of squares to one side and then a second one to the opposite side. Then I had to make the corner squares. The square-in-a-square units are tiny and fiddly, but I managed them with paper piecing, but no pictures, I'm afraid. You'll just have to see the final result after I sewed on the final two strips with the corner squares:

 And the top was done!

While I was at it (I was trying to clean up, after all), I pieced together some pieces for a backing and found a scrap of batting that was big enough.

I decided to go ahead and baste the layers together. My good basting pins were packed away with a large quilt I was preparing to baste, so I used my "bad" pins.

Long ago, I separated my "craft" quality safety pins, but never got rid of them. (Surely they'd be good for something?) I decided to suffer using them for this project just to get it done. I got the piece basted, disposing of about one pin in ten that was just too bad to keep.

I hung the basted quilt on the board above my sewing table. The clear bag is holding fabric I cut for the piping strips, the binding, and two squares for the triangle corners to hang the quilt. Now that I had everything I needed to complete the quilt, I could empty the project box of yellow and blue fabric and redistribute it to my fat quarter and scrap fabric storage.

Here you can see the uncompleted wall hanging next to the original one I'm attempting to match it to.

Not really a matching pair, but I think they look like they go together.

So I have one less box with a pending project inside and was able to organize and put away a lot of scrap fabric pieces that were lying around. Not the quickest way to clear off a work table, but the best way for me to feel more organized and less scattered. Plus this project is only a couple of straight forward steps from being done.

Linking up with:
  -"Finished (or Not) Friday at Alycia Quilts
  -"Oh Scrap" at Quilting is more fun than Housework
  -Quilting Patchwork and Applique