Railroadersbrat

Hey everyone, I hope that we all got through this latest snowstorm okay. We are good, about eight inches of snow on the ground and luckily, the power is still back on. My head seemed to tolerate it all okay, I'm not the best but it could certainly be a lot worse.

The last few days, I've been looking at some Judy Niemeyer patterns and thought maybe of getting one and try it this year. My problem is that I have hyperacusis - an extreme sensitivity to certain sounds and paper, unfortunately, is one of them. I checked out one of her tutorials, just to see how much handling of paper she requires and I'm sad to say, there's no way that I could do one of her patterns right now, the first time she rustled the paper, I thought I was going to hit the ceiling and blow a hole in my roof, my hearing is just that sensitive right now. I could wear ear plugs, yes, but I need to be able to hear my house when I'm sewing, especially when I'm here alone.

I've got it on my list this year to at least try a foundation paper pieced quilt, just to say that I have one under my belt, so instead of one of Judy's patterns, I thought I would go with something much simpler. I was cruising around and found a Hunter's Star - the block is 12.5" unfinished and thought I'd give it a go.

Has anyone ever done a Hunter's Star with layer cakes and if so, how many did it take for your quilt? I'm actually on the fence right now as to how big I want mine, I'm thinking 60 x 60 inches, just for the blocks and then figure out a border later, so it would be five blocks across and five blocks down - 25 blocks total. I tried to figure out the math on how much fabric I would need and I just can't get anywhere, I blame that on the weather shift and the fact that I'm tired from being on the edge of migraines this week.

I've got a few units printed off that I'm thinking of playing around with this weekend, just to get the feel of the steps involved and see what I can do to reduce the sound problem with the paper. Luckily, I've got a ream of actual news print paper, so it's super thin and not as crinkly as regular paper.

Any thoughts, tips, ideas, advice would be great. Thanks, ladies.