Oh Happy Day!

See what's hanging over the closet door? Yup, Martha's Star is done! I am so happy with it I can't tell you. In an earlier post I said I thought it was the perfect mix of scrappy and structured, and now that it is all together I'm even more convinced. And with everything sewn together there is a beautiful weight to it.

It is fitting that I should finish it now because five years ago this week mom passed away. She would have liked the end result too.





This one involed a lot of sewing - 4,369 pieces by my last count, excluding 4 stars that were switched up with lighter colours at the end - and it's a biggie. So large that I don't have a floor space upstairs that I can fully lay it out for you to see the entire thing and get a better sense of the colours, compared to the dull images that I was sending you from the sewing room.











Sewing all the blocks together is not my favourite part of the process because you end up dealing with such a large piece at the end and it is often a struggle, but I found a chain stitching technique on Wanda's blog a while back and I have to say it made the job quite enjoyable.

You start by stacking the blocks from the first two columns side by side and sewing pairs together without cutting your thread between them so they are chained together. Then you add the third column, and so on until you have all the columns joined. I don't have a huge work table so as I added each column I just accordion folded it into a stack and they stayed together nicely.

Columns chained together

Then you work across the columns to join the rows. It saves lots of jumping up and down to get the next row of blocks and you avoid the possibility of sewing rows/blocks in the wrong order (and potentially lots of ripping out!).

The home stretch - pinning and sewing all the rows

The one thing that did take a lot of time was the pinning when I got to joining the rows, but that was because, in essence, each block is a large Nine Patch so I was joining the blocks and then pinning again twice in each block - 30 pins per row; it would go even faster with a different block style. What's particularly nice about it is that with everything all chained together you can just sit in one spot and keep going.

And now it's a quilt top.

Kimono remnants make beautiful stars

Much of what appeals to me about it is the fabric selection. Mom had chosen a wide variety of calicos and remnants, but she also included a few non-cottons - like leftovers from the many, many kimonos we made for our high school musical Teahouse of the August Moon, a beautiful mauve print from a top that Betty made (I think it is rayon), things like that. Not only do they add visual interest but lots of great memories that will be fun to fall asleep under.



Maybe it should be called Starry Night? No, I think we'll stay with Martha's Star....M

Nantes Or Bust

For the past week I have been living vicariously through two of the gals whose blogs I follow - Linda from Quilts in the Barn and Kathy of Material Obsession fame. Interestingly, both are Australians and both are in France right now, Nantes specifically, for Pour L'Amour du Fil, a spectacular looking quilt show that just ended on the 21st. Photos and stories of their touring in and around France, including gay Paris, are giving me itchy feet for a return trip.

This is just on of many stops for Linda who is on what seems like a world tour with a friend. After Nantes she visited Mont St Michel, a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey between Normandy and Brittany dedicated to the archangel St Michael, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its great walls. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been on my TO SEE list for some time. They've been having such a good time - check out her diary.

And Kathy's adventures look no less exciting. After some time in Paris she headed off to the show a bit earlier since she was one of the designers invited to present. And it looks like she is launching her new book Making Quilts here too, along with her friend and neighbour Brigitte Giblin who is launching Feathering The Nest. Sorry, no photos of either cover yet as the books are just off the press but if you scroll down on Kathy's blog you can see a photo of the two gals together in their booths proudly hugging their new releases.

Love the hot pink walls and chartreuse floors of the show's exhibit booths! Fantastic photos, all of which makes me want to go back to France, so, I'm putting it on my bucket list. Time to plan a trip to Nantes for a quilt show and finally get to see Mont St Michel at the same time. Then there's Versailles, The Loire Valley, ....M

A Room With A View

When I'm sitting at the sewing machine I'm surrounded by lots of bins and fabric and lots of projects that are on my list to finish up, so I thought I'd share a few snippits of the more visible ones that look at me from shelves and are draped over chairs and bins.

This one was started about 4 years ago and will be a lap quilt - it looks sort of funny right now but in time all will be revealed.






Then there's this little one, a pattern that I made up about a year ago just because I was keen to try making the blocks in the outside border. One thing lead to another and before you know it we had a quilt top. Be careful what you ask for... It is in neutral right now because I am debating how to finish it off. I've looked at a few design and colour options for the borders and nothing is clicking yet so I'm hoping that the longer I look at it the more apparent the final answer will be. After working with the muted colours for Martha's Star it will be nice to get into bright, clear colours again.





And this one is actually two - the same pattern just slightly different looks (you are looking at the back side and the black & white stripe is a border yet to be applied). I'll need to photograph it in natural light because the fabrics are not being shown with any justice in this shot. I'm not usually drawn to batiks but when I got into collecting them for these quilts it was hard to stop. The tops have been on the TO DO chair for a while now, waiting for border. I shuffled them around today and realized that I still needed to find a backing for one, and, since the big Fabricland sale is still on, off I went.

These will be the two backings. The one on the left I've had for a while and the red the right I picked up today; two very different options but I think they will be equally effective. I've also got some fabric left over from piecing the tops so I'm toying with inserting a pieced strip in the backing of one, maybe both. The other option is to make a smaller project - possibly placemats - for the gift shop at Madonna House. Time to wash the backs and put these babies to bed (so to speak) but I am so close to finishing Martha's Star that I need to stay focused on that for just a little bit longer. Patience....M

Sweet!

When I left you last I was headed off to satisfy my craving for Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing. It's been a while since I made these but they turned out beautifully - I think it's the combination of sour cream and buttermilk that make the texture so melt-in-your-mouth.













I shouldn't be surprised because there isn't much that Ina Garten, aka The Barefoot Contessa, makes that I don't like. How could you not when she freely admits that there isn't a pound of butter that she has met yet that she doesn't like? This time I happened to have Skippy peanut butter on hand so I used it but I have to admit that I prefer the tried and true Kraft brand - it just seems to have a bit more body to it. Anyway, there were more than enough for the two of us (I made lots of minis this time) so I sent a few packages off to friends and family to enjoy as well.

Not sure if it was the sugar fix or just a little bit of resolve, but I now have all of the stars for Martha's Star finished. Yippeeee skippeeee! Now to fill in with Irish Chain blocks. When I step back to look at it the colour combo in that corner looks a little flat so I might sew one or two more stars and switch a few up - one in mauve and another in a deep teal/turquoise. I'll see if I still feel that way once the alternating blocks are laid down. I could use the extra stars to make a runner or start another quilt.

I also got a few more half blocks done up for the edges so the list of things to do is slowly dwindling. Now it's back to lots of this...







And even more of this. Is this photo blurry or is it just my eyes from sewing and ironing all of those little Nine Patch blocks?...M