Teal Carpenter's Star quilt and some HST magic

So I said I'd come back and post about the teal carpenters star quilt that I just finished.

I've been having some problems with the previous carpenters stars' points not quite matching.  This isn't something that really bothered me, as I am really just a process quilter; not a product one, but I thought I might poke around to see what I could do to make things (somewhat) better.  I had been making my HSTs by doing the usual draw the diagonal line on a square fabric and sewing 1/4" from the line, but I had seen some quilters use a larger square to make 4 HSTs at once.

Here's one great site that explains this, and another, and here's the math behind it, from the 2nd link / pinterest:

Since I was wondering if the bias edges made a difference, I cut my squares on the bias, seamed around them, and then cut my HSTs so that they would be on the grain / against the grain, not on the bias. 

Here's the resulting quilt, which has much better points than each of the other Carpenter's Square ones.  Now I just need to add a label and gift it to my friend Carla!!

So what are you doing for Ravellenics?

Quilting update!

Hi there!
What's new with you?

Clearly, blogging hasn't been at the top of my to-do list, but I have some new crafty things to share:

First, I've started quilting, and since Christmas 2013 has passed, I can now share what I gifted for that holiday:

To my mom, a quilt in (some of) her favorite colors of teal, purple and light green:

 The quilt uses Breeze charm packs and the pattern was from a tutorial at http://christaquiltsblog.com, and I appliqued a moose on the back of it as she has an appreciation for moose that I don't understand.  (The toy chest in the top right of the picture is her toy chest from her childhood, now repurposed as our dogs' toy chest.)

For my Far, an irish chain lap quilt made slightly short, as per his preference, and backed in some fun fabric from Ikea:

I've made this quilt pattern several times this year:
Once for my friend Kathryne, in orange, without the top and bottom sashing:

and once for my friend Cindy, in blues:

And I'm currently working on another version of this pattern in a teal as a thank you present (maybe I'll remember to post it later).

Finally, I also made this pattern for one of my friend's first grandchild, Hannah, using two charm packs of Dandelion Girl and attempted some more applique.

After I finish the third Carpenters star / four hour quilt, I'm thinking about making Starburst from Melissa's tutorial at happyquiltingmelissa.

In other news, I'm gearing up for some spinning with the Ravellenic Winter Games (see Ravelry for more info)
 and planning some heirloom gardening this spring using some seedsaver seeds!