DESIGN DECISIONS ON OH, MY STARS

 I am happily working away on Oh, My Stars!  This is a future class offering, most likely a 5 day Seminar Workshop. It has much to teach about the skills of piecing a quilt: the CUTTING, the SEWING, and the PRESSING. 

The design wall today:

Only 3 more Full Stars to make, and those fabrics are selected and cut into strips. It only takes 5 fabrics for each star so it's not hard to choose them. I repeat some of my favorites for continuity across the quilt and to USE UP some of this stash--a novel concept for some:

All four QUARTER STARS are done for the corners, as are all eight HALF STARS for the perimeters. That can be the most challenging: which blocks to complete and which to make as quarters and halves.

 I decided I didn't want any two FULL STARS to be exactly alike so I used fat quarters and worked each star in two parts. First I made a FULL STAR  from 5 fabrics. Then I either made HALF or QUARTERS with the rest of the fabric OR I shuffled the fabrics around, replacing a few with other fabrics, to have FULL STARS that are similar but not the same.

The biggest decision so far has been what fabric to use for the SASHING--the one that joins the small 4" stars. Here were the contenders:

I went with the bottom one, a very rich dark purple solid. After I cut a bunch of those rectangles and made two sashing sections, I could see it on the design wall:

Guess what? I didn't like it. The purple is just TOO DARK. So I made another sashing section, using the soft gold Dit Dots fabric--I LOVE Dit Dots! Here you can see both, the dark sashing on the right, the lighter one on the left. My decision was made, the soft gold is the winner:

There are only a few more decisions to make. The pattern shows 12 half TINY STARS for the ends of the sashing rows. But it doesn't provide instructions for making them:

I don't want bias edges on the long side of this triangle section so I would recalculate how to sew them so there is straight grain there. Not a problem, I could easily do it, but they are already SMALL. I think I will replace them with a quarter square triangle (QST) of  fabric. Which one? Perhaps one of these:

Two more decisions that will be part of the overall decisions on fabric selection to complete the quilt is the narrow INNER BORDER and the PIECED OUTER BORDER. The pattern shows those:

The four fabrics above are definitely in the running for the the borders. And I want to design a different pieced border. I am still thinking about that, probably half square triangles (HST). If you want to do the diamond triangles as shown in the pattern, you can. If you want an alternative pieced border that will be an option.

I will make those decisions as I get to them. I am several weeks away from that now. Stay tuned for more updates...

While working on this kind of project I spend a lot of time making notes on suggested notions and tools that will be helpful. I work on a HANDOUT that will add some additional instruction to the pattern if there are areas that need more information, like pressing directions. 

I will create a chart as part of the handout students can use to keep track of the 5 fabrics in each FULL STAR block--that helps in cutting the correct number of the various strips needed and sewing them together in the correct order. I used orange notepaper but a chart will be better.

This quilt is really fun and I am enjoying the process. While it is not for beginners it provides enough of a challenge that even very experienced quiltmakers will find it engaging. A good STITCH RIPPER is essential! Yes, even for me.

To see more of my process with this quilt, check out these posts:

Fabric Pull Part 1

Strips for Stars  Part 2

Let's quilt.

Barbara

An Alternative Center for The Patchwork Barn

Instead of the Patchwork Barn, I made an alternative center. It is made from half square triangles and is easy to construct. The star is 24" square, including the sawtooth borders. This design is Barbara Brackman #2165, The Twinkling Star, published under the name of Nancy Cabot in the 1930's:

Here are the instructions I  have written:

My Alternative Center 2018 BOM

The Patchwork Barn

MONTH 9

Instead of the Barn, I made a Sawtooth Star Block for the center of my quilt. I used the leftover fabric from my blocks.

NOTE--I used 3 yards of Kona Snow, an off-white, for all the sashing. The full cutting instructions for this layout will be given in Month 11. For now, save 2.5 yards of your sashing fabric for the vertical sashing and narrow sashing between blocks and use .5 yard for the center block construction.

Center Block Construction:

From a half yard sashing fabric cut:

(1) 5” x width of fabric (WOF)

Sub-cut into four 5” squares for the block corners

For the 12 light solid triangles for pieced blocks, you have a choice:

            Use a Half-Square Triangle ruler to cut (12) 4.5” FINISHED half-square triangles--this will require one additional strip of 5” x WOF

 OR:

            Cut a 5.5” x WOF strip of sashing, sub-cut into (6) 5.5” squares, cut each in half to get 12 half square triangles, these are slightly larger than needed.

To Piece triangle units for the center block: I worked from leftover fabrics from the quilt:

            Make 36 1.5” FINISHED half square triangle units

               I used a half-square triangle ruler and 2” strips,

                        Right sides together, cut triangle pairs, sew them.

     

 Cut 36  1.5” FINISHED half square TRIANGLES, mine were all red--I used 2” leftover strips and a half-square triangle ruler. You could cut (18) 2.5” squares in half.

            Join 3 HST units and 3 triangles to form half of the pieced squares.

                  Make a total of 12 of these

Join the 12 pieced triangles to 12 solid white triangles to make 12 pieced squares that FINISH at 4.5”, they will be 5” raw edge to raw edge

Lay out the 12 pieced squares and the 4 corner squares, sew into 24” block.

            I pressed all seams open, press them however you prefer.

From remaining sashing fabric, cut two strips 2” x WOF for inner sashing.

            Sub-cut into (2) 2” x 18.5” and (2) 2” x 21.5” sashing strips

Join left and right sashing to left and right of pieced block, press toward sashing

Join top and bottom sashing to top and bottom of pieced block, now your block should be 21.5” square, raw edge to raw edge

SAWTOOTH BORDERS:

To create the sawtooth borders, make 56 1.5” FINISHED half square triangle units. I used a half-square triangle ruler and 2” strips, lights and darks placed right sides together, cut and sewn into squares. They should be 2”, raw edge to raw edge. You could cut them from 2.5” squares, trimming them to perfection after sewing the triangle pairs together.

Cut (4) light 2”squares for the four corners of the borders.

Left and Right borders: sew 14 HST units together--I changed direction at the mid-point, you may prefer to have all the diagonals go in the same direction

Top and Bottom borders: sew 14 HST units together, add one light square to each end.

When sewn together, the center block is 24” FINISHED, 24.5” raw edge to raw edge.

IMPORTANT TIP FOR SEWING SAWTOOTH BORDERS:

It is very easy for these borders to “grow” as you join them together. I strongly recommend, you “ruler check” your work, with each pair you sew. Chain piece the 14 HST into 7 pairs. Decide how you want to press them--I pressed open.

Measure them carefully--they should be 2” x 3.5” now--two 1.5” FINISHED HSTs, and .5” seam allowance. If they are that size, join these pairs into units of four. Press and ruler check--they should now be 2” x 6.5”. Continue to create the border, ruler checking as you go. If you are off two threads every seam, your border will really grow.

Remember when piecing units: If your unit is not the RIGHT SIZE NOW, it will NOT MIRACULOUSLY become the right size when you do the next step.

The more you ruler check yourself, the better your piecing will be. Eventually, your piecing will be spot on, congratulations--you can stop checking now.

I check every time I make these kind of units--it is very easy to get careless. A metal tape is a good way to check the borders if you don't have a ruler that is at least 24.5" long. Do not use a paper or fabric tape--they stretch over time and are not accurate.

MY LAYOUT:

I also added 1" finished sashing between the blocks to lengthen the quilt. This layout will be provided in Month 11 if you are interested. My quilt has no applique'. The finished size is 74.5" x 97.5".

Let's Quilt.

Barbara