Sunday, June 11, 2017

Teaching the Feathered Star Block



I recently spent the day with 5 enthusiastic students, who were eager to learn the Feathered Star--not paper pieced. We used Marsha McCloskey's wonderful book, Marsha McCloskey's Feathered Star Quilt Blocks 1. Marsha believes in truth-in-advertising--the book is sub-titled:

REALLY HARD BLOCKS THAT TAKE A LONG TIME TO MAKE.

The students could choose whether they wanted to make a 12" or a 15" block and they all went with the 15". For good reason: the pieces are easier to cut for that size.

We worked from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and each student got a row together. All the rest of their pieces are cut out and they now know the process to complete the block. They did great:

Mary used a reproduction-style palette

Brenda knows black looks great with brights
Loretta had a quilt started with these soft fabrics so added this block 
Susan used brights with white

JoAnne is making hers red, white and blue, very striking

They learned a lot, like these are really hard blocks that take a long time to make and they all seemed to be tired at the end of class. Hopefully, they'll finish their Feathered Stars and use them in a great quilt project.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

3 comments:

  1. These are great looking blocks! They are hard and take time, but so worth it. Marsha's book is definitely the way to go, full of inspiration.

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  2. Barbara, I think that was the most challenging class I have ever taken! But I love the end result. Thanks for a great class!

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  3. Marsha is such a good teacher, and she certainly knows her feathered stars!!
    Looks like everyone did really well. That would be because you are a good teacher, too!

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