My First 2014 Block of the Month - Portsmouth Star

Portsmouth Star for Ona Judge Staines

I'm joining in on only one Block of the Month (BOM) this year - so far! It is an irresistible rabbit hole of delightful choices out there for quilters. 

I'm doing the Threads of Memory blocks by Barbara Brackman. I joined this one because I get to read some quilt history each month too - the original reason I fell in love with quilting was reading the stories of the quilters themselves. 

I did make one change to the block - I have a hard time not changing things up!
If you look at the original block you'll see the corners are pieced as two half triangles. 
At first I wanted to set the inner squares like in the above photo - with the fabrics repeating on an angle.
To do this, I had to cut my pieces a different way: I made the background fabric into a rectangle (2 1/2 x 4 1/2) and a  2 1/2 inch square.

I really liked the light triangle option until I looked at the digital picture and realized the white blurred into the star points. So I changed to a blue fabric. 

Then when I saw how the blue looked. . . I didn't like it either! 
The blue square looks like it needs to go into the points between the star tips - it just kind of floats into nowhere!

I turned the half square blocks around to see what it would look like - again the red looks unfinished.

So, when all else fails - make the block the way the designer intended! LOL

One bonus with the way I cut the background fabric is
that all the words read the right way :)
Another bonus - I'm trying to use up Christmas fabrics and get to make some new blocks too!



Barbara puts up a new block at the end of each month.
Here's January's block if you want to join in.



With Joy,

Sarah Vee