A Quilt With Inspiration

Some of you may recall that I made a delicate little baby quilt for my friend who was going to be having a little girl.  I used a new pattern and I had a ton of leftover fabric.  I couldn't believe it!  My first thought was, 'what a waste of money, buying all that fabric.'  My second thought was, 'I guess I'll just have to make another one just like it.'  So that's what I did.  I finished the first quilt in April and just yesterday, the first day of the year, I made the second one.  I had been staring at the fabric for nine months and I just wanted to get it over with already.  I don't have anyone to give it to but I finished the quilt top yesterday.  It looks amazingly similar to the other one!

Here's where the inspiration comes in.  While I was cutting the fabric up into squares and rectangles I had a grand idea.  In November when I visited Amish country I was reminded of prairie star ornaments which look like this:

So as I was cutting I thought, 'Hey!  I could make a prairie star ornament with my leftover fabrics from this quilt.  Maybe it will resemble a flower or something.'  This was the first time in my adulthood that I would attempt to make one of these ornaments. I got out my styrofoam ball, which I bought at the dollar store, and got to work.  

First I had to cut 40 2 inch by 2 inch squares.  Then I ironed them in half and then I ironed in the prairie point.  Look closely and you can see that some of them are ironed.   

Then I marked the ball trying to evenly divide it into four sections.  This did not work very well but I persevered.  I got out my straight pins and started pinning stuff on.  At this point I learned at least two things.  First, use a thimble to push those pins in (my fingers still hurt and it's been 2 days).  Second, maybe dollar store styrofoam is not the way to go.  Here's the first side.  I did not do a very good job of hiding my pins.  

 
At this point it seemed like the styrofoam ball had been smashed by a hundred pins (see number 2 above).  Notice it is not so round anymore.  This was funny to me but did not deter me.   

Here is the completed "ball".  I must have used at least 150 pins.  If I could see through that fabric and styrofoam I can just imagine the sea of pins criss-crossing each other in the middle.

The second side looks much better to me, confirming the age old adage; practice makes perfect. 

I covered up those exposed pins with a little strip of fabric.

Then I added some ribbon to hang it from.  I think it turned out pretty cute though I'm not sure it resembles a flower.  It might make a nice additional gift that goes with the baby blanket, whenever I know someone who is having a girl.

Please note that no glue was used in any part of the creation of this ornament.