Starry, Starry Night

It seems everyone in my quilting circle is working with brights these days; case in point, these wonderful Wonky Stars that Anne has spent a little time with.

She recently reconnected with a friend from years ago who is also a quilter. Claire is now finding it difficult to sew so Anne offered to complete a small quilt that she had started.

I haven't met Claire, but she sounds like a talent, not only creating exceptional quilts but dying some of her own fabrics too, like these blues.

A stack of bright yellow stars came home with Anne after her visit and the challenge was to finish them up,...

...determine the final layout and then get it quilted and bound; it is to be a gift for a mutual friend. It turned out beautifully.

The scrappiness extended into the border where she incorporated several of the yellows used in the stars. The blue with the white dotted swirls was Anne's contribution and it really works nicely. Very Van Gogh.

It was quilted with a sun pattern that Anne says couldn't be more perfect for it's recipient, so she's pretty pumped about that.

Here's another shot of the quilting.

Sew lovely. What a great friend...M

Sticks & Stars

Remember these improv trees that I was playing with in the fall after Jane and I experimented with them? Well, while she was off to the races and whipping up autumn wall hangings with hers I'm still trying to figure out how mine will come together. While I ponder the possibilities they enjoy the small design wall all to themselves.

All that I have resolved so far is that I want a winter forest feel and I want to include some wonky stars, maybe some subtle HSTs. I suspect that the background with be a scrappy collection of prints, but I don't want that to take away from the trees. And I don't think I want to add more trees, so this could be a small quilt but I'll lay it out on a larger design wall soon and see if that changes.

So, while I ponder, I play. I've been testing out wonky star options - teenie tiny fun! I made the first one with 2 1/2" blocks, which finish up at 6" but I think it's too large for all of them given the size of the trees...

so I changed to 1 1/2" blocks to end up with a 3" star and I like that much better. I think it still needs another size added to the mix so I'll try one or two with  2" blocks so there's lots of variety.

They are in yellows and golds and creams with a little blue, aqua and pink tossed in.

One of the lamps in the sewing room is on the fritz so it's darker in one corner than usual, which means that I've been trying to get a read as to whether they are a good fit in really poor lighting. Today I brought the board upstairs into better light and I think that the next couple of stars also need to be a little stronger. So, I inch along with this one. I guess the next step is to try to figure out the background....M

Lets Make a Deal

I spent a little time making a deal with myself - if I'm starting Danuta's Garden (and I have) I wanted to finish off the row of Wonky Stars, get it attached to my Postage Stamp quilt and move this one to the finished column.

The stars have been laid out on the floor waiting for another one or two to be added to the end, and they have been there for a few weeks now, so it was time to get everything put together.

It came together nicely in the end and I'm lovin' the result. There are 3,024 2-inch square hand-pieced blocks, but the stars (13-inch blocks) were made on the machine. And if you look closely around the top and right edges you can see the purple diamond border pattern that I worked in.

Those stars are really fun to make - I'd like to make a baby quilt out of them.

The size of the blocks didn't fit perfectly with the length of the quilt so I added two pieces of sashing in the bottom left corner - just one more bit of scrappiness....M

Night Mail

I headed to Jane's cottage for the weekend based on a weather forecast that was hot and sunny, but much of it ended up wet and rainy. Not to worry - that meant lots of time to sit and work on my Postage Stamp (remember the ripping needed?). It also gave me a chance to get caught up with some of Jane's projects. She has sewn the first strip of the Plaid HST quilt (needs a new name, Jane) that she's working on for her nephew and it continues to be gorgeous.

The necessary ripping out happened on my quilt and then I worked at adding the correct string of blocks.

That went well so it was on to the next row.

Jane noted that it was going to be a huge quilt and I couldn't help but agree. Once the last 4 or 5 rows of blocks were added it would be two thirds complete and it was already a good size. When I got home I thought I'd measure it; already it is about 70 x 100" - certainly no need to make it longer, but adding another 35 inches of width didn't seem to make any sense either.

Time to shift gears. What about making it asymmetrical and adding a column of large, Wonky Stars to one side?

I've been wanting to try this since I saw a similar idea at Blue Elephant Stitches. I figured out how to make a Wonky Star and then was off to the races. Fun!

The blocks will finish at 12" and there will be about 7 of them. Now just to figure out if I take any blocks off the end to make it a little shorter. All in all, this one is headed for the finish line and much, much earlier than I had ever anticipated.....M