DIAMOND JUBILEE PROGRESS

 You may remember I decided to greatly alter my plan for my "Diamond Jubilee" quilt. It was begun 12 years ago in anticipation of my 60th birthday. This year I will be 10 +1 more than that so it was time to get this done.

Here is  where I am today:

Still to come is a pieced border of half square triangles and an outer border of the paisley print used in the center of each star and the sashing between the stars. 

Here is the original plan--to replicate a quilt made by Catherine Butterworth I saw in a magazine years ago. It won a big award at the Sydney Australia quilt show, where Catherine lives.  I tracked her down and we became "friends".  My colors would be much different but I LOVED her design. Her stars are almost 20", with 4 "feathers" on each side, mine is 15", with 3 feathers on each side:

"Julie's Quilt" by Catherine Butterworth, 96" square

A year ago I only had 4 stars done of the 13 needed. So I got back to this project in earnest. I made 5 more Feathered Star blocks, using the detailed color plan I developed 12 years ago.

Over time, things change. I decided I didn't need a king size quilt. And I didn't want to make 8 HALF STAR blocks and 4 QUARTER STAR blocks. I had 9 Feathered Star blocks done, 15" square each. So what to do???

I played around in Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8), quilt design software, to get an idea of what I might want to do. Sixteen Feathered Stars set straight would look like this:

That was ok, I already had 1 star done with the light yellow background. I would still have to make 7 more Feathered Stars. And 80" x 80" is still a pretty large quilt.

Ultimately, I settled on this:

BUT, the yellow stars look way out of place. I made 3 more Feathered Stars, each with darker backgrounds. Putting them on the design wall gave me this--the yellow one is still a problem:

SO, I made ONE MORE FEATHERED STAR: with a GREEN background. Now I had this and I liked it  much better:

OK, on to the sashing. I pulled one fabric after another out of my deep stash closet, auditioning many options: light, dark, striped, solid. Nothing seemed to work:

Sometimes you just need another set of eyes to help you see. My friend, Jan Davis, was out of state at the time but I was able to send these photos, and others, to her for her opinion. Jan is making several of these same stars to finish up her own "long brewing" quilt project. I knew she would understand my dilemma and how I wanted to get it "right".

Jan agreed with me about the yellow star--it had to be replaced. Then she suggested the idea I had been toying with: what about the big paisley print that is the "focus" fabric for all the fabrics included in the quilt? Would it be busy? Yes. Would it be unexpected? Yes. Would it WORK? Maybe... I have a BOLT of it so that wasn't a problem:

It's not awful

It was so much better than anything else I had tried I declared it the winner. The cornerstones really help to break up some of the "chaos" a busy print brings to the table:

Now it was time to make the half square triangle borders. I had designed them to be 3" so I made a bunch of the 80 needed. When I put them on the wall beside the top I knew they were JUST TOO BIG. I made a few that were 2" finished, much better.  I need 130 of those but they are quick to make so that is my new plan:

There will be a large outer border of the paisley once the half square triangle borders are done. The quilt will  be about twin size when done, significantly smaller than the original plan. But that will make it a good size as a class sample to teach the paper pieced Feathered Star block. I already have a YELLOW sample block done!

The pattern is FEATHERED STAR HEAVEN by Sue Garman--all the papers you need to make 9 blocks are included in the pattern. Sue's instructions are excellent. I recommend it highly. The Star is 15" finished. See my TUTORIAL on FEATHERED STARS here

So, you have to be prepared to change your mind on a long-term project when it no longer sings to you. Right now, I am happy to charge ahead to get this top finished before my Joyful Journey Retreat March 5-9. There I will be able to baste it so I can quilt it later this year.

I really look forward to having this BUCKET LIST QUILT finished.

Let's quilt.

Barbara