Conquering Stonefields Block 18, "Star in a Star"

Happy Sunday, everyone!  I have another finished block for my Stonefields sampler quilt (pattern by Susan Smith) to share with you, Block 18 "Star in a Star."  It was a fiddly little bugger for sure, but I'm delighted with how it turned out.  These blocks will finish at 6" after being trimmed down and sewn into the quilt.

Stonefields Block 18, "Star in a Star"

I have heard from a few other quilters who are working on Stonefields or other Susan Smith patterns who are struggling with the lack of instructions, so I'm going to try to share a bit more about how I'm puzzling out the more challenging blocks.  This is not "the right way," "the only way," or even necessarily "the best way" -- only the way that worked for me.

Stonefields Block 17 Remake + Mistake Discovered in Block 16

 You guys, I was so proud of myself when I switched off my sewing machine last night, put my new Stonefields Block 17 "Square Peg in a Round Hole" on my design wall, and went to bed thinking all mistakes had been corrected.  (If you're wondering what was wrong with the first one I made, read this blog post from a few days ago).  I strongly prefer the on-point orientation of that square with the circle cutout now that I've fixed it in my purple block.  The square on point element is repeated in many of the blocks in this quilt, and repeated design elements are one of the things that gives cohesion to a sampler quilt like this one.  

Stonefields Block 17, Just as Susan Smith and Rebecca Grace Intended

Before remaking the block, I took the time to trace over the ridiculously faint lines of the block pattern with an extra fine point Sharpie pen to make sure I could clearly see it through my fabric, because even with an LED light box you can't see these patterns well enough through most fabrics.  If I'd done that tracing and darkening of the pattern right off the bat, these mistakes would not have happened in the first place.  And I am hugely annoyed with pattern designer Susan Smith that I have to take all that extra time to trace over every stinking block pattern with Sharpie before I can use it, because the pattern cost $200(!!!) and there are hardly any instructions whatsoever, just vague hints and clues and anecdotes about the blocks, and how difficult would it have been to have these patterns printed with thicker, darker lines like every other quilt pattern author uses in their patterns?  GRRR...

So this morning I walked into the studio, admired all my pretty blocks on the wall (I finished a couple more EPP hexagon rosettes for the border yesterday as well:

Slow But Steady Stonefields Progress: My Design Wall Today at 8:19 AM

I am so glad I remade that purple block!  It only took me an hour or two and whereas the old block made me feel disappointed and annoyed with myself, the new block makes me feel DELIGHTED and pleased with myself for identifying what went wrong, adjusting my process to make errors less likely, and successfully creating the block exactly the way that I wanted it to look instead of settling for less.