Well I hope it is easier for you! How are you piecing the friendship star?
I make mine with half square triangle squares but I cut them out my way.
Then you are only sewing a 9 patch together with 4 HSTs and 5 simple squares

If I can help just email me [email protected]

I am including pictures of how I do it.

Teresa here is how I make my friendship stars. You can see how I use the HSTs and plain blocks. You can make the center block to match the star.

Oh Izy, i love your bookmarker! I think i'll make mine like that too :)

MsSage: The resizing isn't that bad. I plan on using this Boston Block method for 12" card tricks. I will be using a 4 1/2" square ruler I have to cut my blocks. Card trick is a 9 patch. Therefore each segment is 4 inches finished to make a 12 inch finished block. I will probably never use anything smaller that a 2 1/2" ruler. I am not into minis. I just recently resized the Carpenter's Star with no y seams down to to a 16" center for a medallion round robing quilt I am involved in. Resizing a block up or down just takes a little time as you look at the divisions in the block and start doing the math. (Don't hate me... I loved math in school. After all I am a retired accountant.) Most come out to nice easy numbers to work with. Block sizes that are divisable by 3 are the easiest for me to work with. I have worked with some nasty numbers.....16ths yuk. So if you see a block you love and want it a different size go for it.
Connie

I had someone ask for the 1 1/2" template but called it a ruler. I thought at the time they just confused the two terms but I see you called your 4" a ruler also. Is this a common thing I have just not seen before? I love language and how people use phrases and words differantly. So I am just curious about this use of the word ruler in place of calling it a template.

Rhonda: If they have numbers and lines on them I call them rulers. Templates to me are the shapes such as....drunkard paths, dresden plate, grandmothers flower garden wedding ring, etc. No rule that I know of just one that I use for me.

Thanks Connie for clearing up my confusion. I didn't want to offend anyone by not getting it right. My template have a grid glued on but no numbers so to me they are templates because I use what they call template plastic for the grid. It is really I suppose a compromise between a ruler and a template. Either one is not accurate and yet either one is ok to use to refer to them. Thanks!

I bought the book and I'm looking forward to putting it to good use. I still have to come up with some filler blocks on Grandsons train quilt. He gave me a few pointers over the weekend. He turns 6 today and he is a mess. Love him to death!! Wish the other 2 were close enough for me to spoil as much as I have this one. So sorry to hear about some of you have death of friends and family. I know how it is. In the last 3 years we have lost 2 (to us kids) girl and her baby in a car wreck, and a young man who was our oldest boys best friend, and his dad from carbon monoxide poisoning. So hard to take and understand. I also have my Mother living with us as she can't be by herself anymore has been 3 years now.
Good news is we are going to get to see our youngest son the end of next month as he will be in FT.Levenworth for school from May 1 to Aug.1 and we have not seen him in 4 years. Haven't seen his family either but at this point I will take what I can get. Sorry I'm so long.
Every one have fun with the blocks then we can have show and tell. :D :D

Quilting and quilting friends offer many of us a way to keep our minds and hands busy and offers us the opportunity to share each others joys and sorrows. We can prop each other up and keep on going even though we have different back grounds and have a large span in our ages. Quilting allows us the opportunity to give a part of ourselves to our family, like our grand children and to our friends. The sharing and learning how to create an old pattern with a different technique helps each one of us make it thru another day and perhaps the next day will be easier. We never forget those we love, and in time the sorrow of losing them can be overshadowed in remembering the enjoyment of having had them touch our lives. From my view point as a woman, I find strength to keep on keeping on in thinking of other women whom I see doing the same thing and most of the time under much more difficult circumstances than I have. It is wonderful that interwoven in our exchange of ideas, and the "how to" accomplish certain tasks that we can slow down and say,"Today my heart is sad" and know that others are there to support us in our effort to continue on.

Very eloquent and very well put!!