Stonefields "Four Little Stars" Block 24 + Trimming Appliqué Blocks to Size

Hello and Happy May!  I have another Stonefields appliqué block to share with you, the first of two "Four Little Stars" blocks.  It was quite fiddly but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Stonefields Block 24, "Four Little Stars"

The other accomplishment I'm proud of is that I finally got over my fear of trimming down the oversized appliqué backgrounds on all of my completed blocks for this quilt, and no applique blocks were destroyed in the process!  Now that all of my Stonefields blocks are 6 1/2" unfinished, it's easier to mix them up on the design wall and get a better feel for how this sampler quilt is taking shape.  That will help me make decisions about which colors, prints, values to use more or less of in subsequent blocks.  Stonefields is a sampler quilt pattern designed by Susan Smith, and this post contains affiliate links .

Stonefields In Progress, All Appliqué Blocks Trimmed to Size

I'll document how I trimmed those blocks for Future Rebecca's benefit later in this post.  First, let's talk about the Four Little Stars block.  

Stonefields Blocks 20 and 21-23: "O is for Oscar"

Good Morning, my lovelies!  I have had extra motivation to finish these quilt blocks and share them with you as quickly as possible -- in order to bump the butt photos of my jeans alteration post off the landing page of my blog.  And also, these blocks are cuties!  Quick disclaimer, this post contains affiliate links.  And now, meet "O is for Oscar," blocks 21-23 of the Stonefields Quilt pattern designed by Susan Smith:

Stonefields "O is for Oscar" Blocks 21, 22 and 23

As usual, (for me, anyway) the most time consuming part was selecting fabrics for each block.  However, that's also the most enjoyable part -- picking out one or two new Tilda acquisitions and then digging out treasures from the scrap bin or a fat quarter from my Deep Stash to coordinate, knowing that even though I'm making the same quilt from the same pattern many others are using, mine will be uniquely mine because of the fabric mix.  And it is so satisfying to step back and look at the finished blocks that you imagined in the beginning and then stitched into being.  

I stitched these blocks like an assembly line, since they were three the same.  I cut out all the pieces and organized them on my design wall, then took the pieces down and lined them up next to my sewing machine for chain piecing all of the blocks at once.  Below, the block backgrounds have been sewn together and pressed and the appliqué circles are ready to be positioned on the block.  I used one of Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circle templates with the starch and press method to get my circles so round and smooth.  Even if I'm needle turning all of the other raw appliqué edges  in a block as I'm stitching, I'll always use a Perfect Circle template to preturn the edges of circles because they turn out so much better for me that way.  Hats off to the quilters of the 19th century who had no choice but to needle turn their circles because heat resistant plastic templates hadn't yet been invented!

Machine Pieced Blocks, Prepared Circle Appliqués Ready to Go

Susan Smith's (very minimal!) instructions for the Stonefields quilt assume that makers will be hand piecing their blocks and needle turning all of their appliqué.  For this block, there was a note about sewing the circles to each of the square patches before piecing the rest of the block together, which made me scratch my head a bit as I couldn't figure out why that would be advantageous.  I felt it would be easier to keep things straight and square and positioned properly if I pieced the block first and added my circles last, so that's what I did.