BOM: Lucky Stars January

One of my Technical Goals for 2014 is to work on my points and "exact sewing". One of my Application Goals was to do a Block of a Month club. So when I happened upon Don't Call Me Betsy's Lucky Star BOM club it was perfect!

A lot of BOM clubs patterns seem to be a little old fashioned, which isn't my style, but I love the look of these stars! I decided to really tap into my stash for this one and not buy any fabric for the blocks (sashing, border, etc. will be a different story) and to make the stars as vibrant and jewel like as possible.

I was cruising along and thinking I was rocking this. I really like paper piecing. It feels so controlled. As I put together the "rays" together I was never off by more than a sixteenth inch here or there (pretty good for me!).

Then all the pieces were put together and the center looked like this (I really need to start taking photos in daylight, not under my dining room light!):
 

And another side looked like this:

Grrrr... So frustrating!

But here's the whole shot...

And if I ignore my terrible center and the wonky connection AND that this wasn't actually supposed to be the order of the fabrics... I like it!

I like how the colors work together. I like that most of all of the points line up (except of course for the glaring center). I like the visual that's developing in my head for the final product. That's a fair amount of likes for my first star (trying to be positive here!).

So here's what I'm taking from this one...

Technical:
-Be more careful with cutting the 1/4" seam allowance, especially on the centers of each ray
-Press carefully and accurately after each fabric addition

Practical:
-I love my seam ripper

Now the hubs went over to the neighbors to watch the football game so I'm going to continue with my evening of decadent sewing!