A Glimpse into the Process

I thought I'd show my method for making the hexagons into stars.  Bear with the fact that Blogger loaded every photo sideways!

This is the basic paper-piecing template.  It is a 2"x6" triangle.

It is seriously the simplest paper piecing ever - 3 pieces...a triangle with black batik trims.

 Here it is from the backside... trimmed to a 1/4" seam allowance.  Nothing magic yet (or maybe ever!).

 I remove only the papers behind the black trimmed area.

 That plastic thing is Templar - heat resistant plastic.  It is often used to iron the seam allowances around appliques.  In essence, that is what I am doing too.  It has a pencil line at 1/4", as these black trims are intended to be 1/4" thick.

The finished stars will be hand appliqued to the background fabric.  Using a paint brush and liquid starch (spray it into a little cup). lightly paint the edge of the black fabric, then press it into position. From the back it looks like the next photo.  The seam allowance just pressed is a tad floppy.

 Because I am concerned how well this pressed edge will hold with time (I have no idea how long it will be before I get around to appliquing the blocks), I am doing one further step.  I dot the orange fabric 4-5 times with clear Elmer's glue, and heat set this seam with the iron.

 The finished unit is all held in place, and shouldn't move until I move it!

 I also have to trim these zebra-hexies to size because the zebra stripe pieces were slightly oversized.

 This is easy using a hex template.  I just mark w/ the 1/4" seam allowance and then trim.

 The 6 triangle units are carefully centered on the sides of the hexie, pinned and stitched on the paper line.  In theory, it should be creating a perfectly shaped star.  Theory...

After stitching, remove the papers and press the seam towards the center of the hexie.  This will also turn the edge of the small remaining zebra print points (which I do starch press to hold).

Viola! I am working on stars 7 through 9 this week.  This process takes me 1 hour per block, so no fast production line here~  The finished look is interesting though.