Making progress on Old Yeller

I've taken a little time off from working on my quilt, largely so I can try to sit up straight again, shoulders back, and without pain. When I get involved in something, I tend to work on it til it hurts. I do the same thing with Jigsaw puzzles. I just can't seem to leave them alone.

It has been a couple of days since I've worked on Old Yeller, (I think I'll call it that until it becomes a completed quilt.)
For the last few days I have been working on a book I've been writing for years. Some day it will be something to talk about, but for now, let us just say, it is an ongoing project.

I made great progress on last week, devoting an entire day to simply cutting out all the pieces that will go into my fifteen 12-point star blocks. There are only five different shapes, but some of them are used in each block a couple times. Two shapes required 60 individual pieces each. Most of the others required only 30.

Once all of them were cut out, it took two days to sew them together into units. There were eight units in the block, with an inner unit--the star and an outer unit--the background.
I have already completed the inner units for all 15 blocks.

I took great pains in trying to match the center points. I really like perfection, but it is so difficult for us humans, especially when a perfect block is dependent on both perfect cutting and perfect sewing. Honestly, these blocks are not perfect, although I did the best I could for my ability and experience. This is after all, my first star block.

It certainly is close enough though that when completed, I will be happy with it.

All that is left to do is to sew the outer four units, each which contain three pieces which are already sewn together. These are all tricky inset seams, although I believe they are so much easier than those pesky points.

I will complete the blocks in a day or so. Then I can concentrate on my alternate nine-patch blocks. That should be a snap. Then I get to worry about what kind of backing and batting to use. ARRG! More decision making. Then there will be the big decision about a quilting pattern. That will be when the fun part begins.

It is so exciting when all the pieces come together. I'm anxious to see a completed quilt top, not to mention a completed quilt, though that is months from now.

I just thought of something--Imagine trying to explain the quilting process to an alien or someone who never heard of quilting. We take perfectly good yardage, cut it into tiny pieces, only to sew it back together again. Sounds silly, but won't it look nice?