BUCKET LIST QUILT # 3

My "BUCKET LIST" of quilts I still plan to make includes a few I started years ago. This is one of those,  STAR OF TEXAS. 

I am enamored of all things TEXAS, I was probably meant to live there, but for now I want a "TEXAS" quilt:

STAR OF TEXAS was started at least 25 years ago when I saw a tiny little image in a magazine of the center square made up of many small five-pointed stars. Using graph paper and a calculator, I drafted the center using 64th's of a inch. Yes, crazy, I know, but I am a numbers person and it was fun. 

I played around with Electric Quilt--whichever early version I had then, long gone now, and got the center made. The off-white background was what I had on hand and seemed the best choice at the time.

Once the red border was added I knew the yellow-ish cream muslin center fabric was wrong. And I didn't know what I wanted to do next so I packed it away, with a big bundle of red, white, blue and gold fabrics and left it. 

About 10 years ago I tackled it again, taking off  the red borders and carefully removing the background fabric. I had created full-size paper templates of the 5 background shapes so it wasn't too hard to cut new ones and replace them with white Grunge--much better!  

Now I had this. NOTE: the red borders are just on the design wall for inspiration--they haven't been sewn in place yet. I expect to cut them down a bit:

Now that I have looked at it a few times  I know what to do next. Playing with EQ 8 I came up with this design. I did not take the time to draw the actual center star as it is made--this simply allows me to get right to playing with border ideas:

62" square

But wait. What if I want it larger? Here is another possibility:

71.5" square

For now, I will make the red and blue stars for the borders since they are definitely going to be used. They are 5" standing with the star center point at the top but 7" if I set them on point as shown in these border ideas. Does it make a difference to Texans if the star is sideways?

This one has moved up to the top of the list of quilts to make/finish.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

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

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas everyone!  May your day be merry and bright!

Barbara