Lots of Stars!
Last weekend, I went to a guild retreat. There were 26 of us spending the weekend away enjoying stitching away and chatting. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so pleased in everything I accomplished.
About five years ago I purchased some fabric to make a one block wonder quilt. About four years ago one of the guild workshops was a One Block Wonder class with Maggie Butterfield Dickenson. Two years ago, I finished making all the hexagons for the quilt. Last year I did very little quilting. This year I decided the top needed to be finished. I finally put it up on the design wall several months ago and start to move the blocks around. I didn't have enough of the original fabric to do a border so decided to include the original fabric in the center of the quilt. I spent last week sewing columns together then packed everything up to take to the retreat. I stopped at Len's Mills on the way to look for a fabric to look for a border and found a very nice batik to complete the fabric. Most of Friday and Saturday morning were spent assembling the top and make the binding. I'm very pleased with the results. Hopefully I don't end up waiting more years before quilting the top.
Saturday afternoon I moved onto Common Bride. I had 302 half square triangles to press and trim for the quilt (2 had already been done). I'd sewed them last month and split the squares but needed to press and trim. My goal for February was to press and trim half of them and the stretch goal was to get all of them done.
Before dinner I had them all pressed and sorted into stacks based on the colour. I started to trim them then took a break to enjoy the spa and some dinner. After dinner I finished trimming all the squares! I was really pleased to get them all done.
There wasn't much to trim and one of the ladies was looking for small slivers to use with Solvy. She took all my little scraps, put them between a few layers of Solvy and quilted them. This is the results waiting to be soaked and for her to use for something. Very pretty!
Over the last month I've had a whole series of stars in my purse to piece. Sitting at lunch, during evening meetings, on a drive to visit my Dad, sitting and watching Netflick or TV etc. Sunday morning I finished star 25 and laid them out on the table to pick which one should be the centre star and which 24 would form one of the borders. I had one block in mind for the centre but a few of the ladies pointed out a different block and their reasoning -- a wonderful benefit of making a decision at the retreat. I liked their logic and so selected a different block for the centre. The centre star needed a dark corner and the remaining blocks got white corners.
I was able to add the dark corners and border to the centre block
And to add the white corners to the remaining 24 stars at the retreat. They got a proper pressing and trimming when I got home. I'll need to decide how the stars are going to be arranged into this border but for now they are up in order of the colour of the order ring of diamonds.
My goal had been to complete 12 of the stars and the stretch goal was to complete all 25 stars and get the corners sewn on. I'm glad to completed both stretch goals this month. Except for the applique, the rest of the quilt should be fairly easy to piece by machine -- although I'll take a close look at part of the feather star that goes around the centre. I think it will be OK to do by machine as the seam is large enough but perhaps part of it would also be easier hand pieced -- we'll see what happens.
I'm linking up with Esther's WOW which I haven't done in a long time and with Patty's One Monthly Goal .
About five years ago I purchased some fabric to make a one block wonder quilt. About four years ago one of the guild workshops was a One Block Wonder class with Maggie Butterfield Dickenson. Two years ago, I finished making all the hexagons for the quilt. Last year I did very little quilting. This year I decided the top needed to be finished. I finally put it up on the design wall several months ago and start to move the blocks around. I didn't have enough of the original fabric to do a border so decided to include the original fabric in the center of the quilt. I spent last week sewing columns together then packed everything up to take to the retreat. I stopped at Len's Mills on the way to look for a fabric to look for a border and found a very nice batik to complete the fabric. Most of Friday and Saturday morning were spent assembling the top and make the binding. I'm very pleased with the results. Hopefully I don't end up waiting more years before quilting the top.
Before dinner I had them all pressed and sorted into stacks based on the colour. I started to trim them then took a break to enjoy the spa and some dinner. After dinner I finished trimming all the squares! I was really pleased to get them all done.
Over the last month I've had a whole series of stars in my purse to piece. Sitting at lunch, during evening meetings, on a drive to visit my Dad, sitting and watching Netflick or TV etc. Sunday morning I finished star 25 and laid them out on the table to pick which one should be the centre star and which 24 would form one of the borders. I had one block in mind for the centre but a few of the ladies pointed out a different block and their reasoning -- a wonderful benefit of making a decision at the retreat. I liked their logic and so selected a different block for the centre. The centre star needed a dark corner and the remaining blocks got white corners.
I was able to add the dark corners and border to the centre block
And to add the white corners to the remaining 24 stars at the retreat. They got a proper pressing and trimming when I got home. I'll need to decide how the stars are going to be arranged into this border but for now they are up in order of the colour of the order ring of diamonds.
My goal had been to complete 12 of the stars and the stretch goal was to complete all 25 stars and get the corners sewn on. I'm glad to completed both stretch goals this month. Except for the applique, the rest of the quilt should be fairly easy to piece by machine -- although I'll take a close look at part of the feather star that goes around the centre. I think it will be OK to do by machine as the seam is large enough but perhaps part of it would also be easier hand pieced -- we'll see what happens.
I'm linking up with Esther's WOW which I haven't done in a long time and with Patty's One Monthly Goal .
You made great progress on your goal. Those stars are really beautiful!
ReplyDeleteStunning finishes all. Can't believe the amount of piecing in those last blocks!!
ReplyDeleteLots of great stars!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful stars. Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish.
ReplyDelete