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Starting my Solstice Star Sampler

October 14, 2013 by childlikefascination

When I brought my queen size charming stars quilt out of hibernation to finally complete it I had the brilliant thought that I should combine machine quilting and hand quilting after I pieced the top. I had such a love hate relationship with that quilt that I couldn’t bear to let it be my first hand quilt project so I figured that once it was all pieced I’d let it go back into hibernation and whip up a little sampler quilt to use as a test run for hand quilting. I’d had these two fat quarter bundles from Joann’s and I thought these prints plus a couple solids would make a great sampler project and because I lack self control when I dropped off Christmas quilt #3 to the shop I picked up some coordinating solids. The grey is much more of a warm grey/beige color than you see in the pics is quite lovely and unlike most colors I’ve worked with before. It lets the prints really pop. I love the solstice star quilt along and have always wanted to try paper piecing but know I’m not ready to commit to a full paper piecing quilt so I knew this would be just the right combination!  The star blocks are a bit more complicated than most blocks I’ve put together and require much more precision than I’m accustomed to but I know I’m up to the challenge.

Solstice Star Sampler Planning

I sat down with the graph paper, colored pencils and fat quarters and got to planning. (Update: as I’ve sewn blocks I’m swapped out some fabric based on balance either for the set or the block itself.) 3 blocks are standard piecing and 2 are paper piecing  I’m going to knock out the standard piecing blocks first and then use the paper piecing ones as my challenge to finish blocks. For the 6th star I’m going to add a 3rd paper piece from the Summer Sampler Series As far as how this quilt will come together I’m thinking a little less traditional than all my other quilts which tend to be pattern all over with border.  I this one will be a row of 6 stars with 2″ sashing between each.  There will be 20″ of background fabric above and 58″ of background fabric below.  The bottom will have a chain of hexies appliques about 10″ from the bottom. This will yield a 86×90 full sized quilt. The challenge there will be that I plan to use my home machine to do the quilting but long straight lines through the solid then hand quilting the blocks and hexies shoulgn’t be too bad….right? I’m glad I Photoshopped (note colors in my Photoshopping are not accurate) to get the measurements just right and to check the proportions. I had originally planned on 2″ hexagons but realized they were too small and that a 4″ hexagon would feel more proportional with the larger blocks.

This is the quilt design I plan to use for my sampler quilt with 4" hexagons at the bottom

This is the quilt design I plan to use for my sampler quilt with 4″ hexagons at the bottom and combine home machine and hand stitching

My original plan was 2" hexagons in a chain but after creating the comp in Photoshop I see that the quilt lacks balance

My original plan was 2″ hexagons in a chain but after creating the comp in Photoshop I see that the quilt lacks balance

I don’t have a timeline that I’ll be working all these pieces but I’m so eager to try paper piecing for the first time and really practice precise block making that I’m sure they’ll be done quickly! Watch here for updated links to posts about each block!

  • Ribbon Star (source)
  • Whirling Star (paper piece) (source)
  • Another Star (source)
  • Star of Mystery (paper piece) (source)
  • Two Color Star (source)
  • Evening Star (paper piece) (source) from the Summer Sampler Series

Part of my Solstice Stars Series Quilt

Thanks to Faith of Fresh Lemons Quilts for such a great project and wonderful tutorials! You can view all my solstice star quilt along posts here!

Fresh Lemons Quilts Solstice Stars Series

Posted In: Quilting, Uncategorized Tags: quilt along, sampler, solstice stars

Quilt of Valor: Pre-planning phase

October 11, 2013 by childlikefascination

Boho Vintage Star Quilt

Beautiful Boho Vintage Star Quilt MBS

I’ll start out by saying that I’m a sucker for all things Moda Bake Shop. But something struck me when I came across the pattern for the Boho Vintage Star Quilt when browsing through the archives a few months ago; I thought that compared to many other patterns I’d seen it looked pretty quick and achievable with such large blocks. I’ve already got two “in progress” quilts, one off at the longarmer’s and fabric for at least 2 more piling up so I didn’t need a new project so I tucked it away.

Then while laying in bed a while back feeling sorry for myself for one reason or another I snapped myself out of it and remembered I’m truly blessed with all the privileges, people and gifts in my life and feeling sorry doesn’t change anything. So I started browsing online for something I could do to give back, a charity or volunteer work.  I don’t have a lot of free time so volunteer work is tricky to fit in.  I don’t mind donating money but I prefer when there’s some sense of accomplishment, I was happy to donate $100 when my friends walked for the Jimmy Fund this September and $250 to the Boston Marathon Bombing match donations at the bar where I line dance. Then I thought about sewing for charity and one Google search away was Quilts of Valor

In order to make the quilt at a reasonable cost I wasn’t gonna be able to use Moda pre-cuts I knew this was a fat quarter or a stash buster type quilt. I spent time manipulating the pattern and measurements and sketching and mathing (yes, mathing) all over some scrap paper (see photo above).  I can’t be the only one who ends up with papers that look like this on their desks, in the handbag and god knows where else!

 

You know your have papers like this strewn about your desk, handbag and pinboard too!

You know your have papers like this strewn about your desk, handbag and pinboard too!

I put out some feelers with friends to see who would want to help out and drink wine while making this quilt and was pleased with the responses. It’s my usual wine drinkers and crafty wine drinking friends. Since it’s for a charity I decided not to push it off till next year and an hosting the get together with the girls the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I figure that’s the perfect time to express our thankfulness.

I’ve taken to sketching blocks and quilts more on graph paper more frequently and I have to say it really helps to visualize the end results and make better decisions ahead of time!

Color Sketch of the Quilt of Valor

Color Sketch of the Quilt of Valor

Fabric math spelled out:

To achieve the scrappy look without charm packs I’ll need 14 1/4 yards of fabric to yield 8 charms each (112 total.) Since I want to use red, white and blue for the star I’ll up that to 15 so there’s 5 different fabrics per color set. After cutting the 5″ charms from the 1/4 yd I’ll have 4″ strips of all 15 fabrics to use as an additional border or binding.

  • Focus fabrics: 15 – 1/4″ yds (5 red, 5 white, 5 blue)
  • Background: 3.5 yards (Essex Linen to make the colors & white pop)
  • Backing: 4.5 yards
  • Binding: 5/8th (or use scraps from focus fabric for scrappy look)

I’ll also have to make a presentation case but I think that’ll be an easy think to do while the quilt is at the longarm, maybe a linen reusable shopping bag using the leftover charms to applique?  I’m also planning on writing a letter to the recipient. One after I buy the fabric, one from each of us at the sewing party, requesting one from the longarm quilter and a final one after the binding is stitched on. I’m getting the warm fuzzy feeling just thinking about it!

Note: After sketching it out I now know that instead of putting the 3 3/4″ inner border I’ll want to do a 5″ strip for the inner border. It should even out to allow the outside border to be a continuous red, white, blue pattern. I’ll have to do a bit of measurement before cutting those strips (eg. construct the star, the outer border then measure 4x cut once)

Posted In: Quilting, Uncategorized Tags: quilt of valor

Christmas Quilts are Killing me!

October 9, 2013 by childlikefascination

Since I started quilting 2 years ago I’ve got a few quilts under my belt.  There’s my first, Mediterranean Garden Maze which is based on the Moda Bake Shop Squardey Cat pattern.  Then there was a little custom dog quilt for the dog my ex and I had designed with little dog bone squares. Next I made my Quillow which is a simple pattern I custom designed. Later I fell in love with Kate Spain’s Terrain fabric line and started a queen size quilt that is still an UFO in a box from when I moved into my apartment in April 2012.

I had been in a funk when I moved into my apartment and didn’t sew for a while, then I powered through a baby quilt for one of my best friends who was expecting her first boy, I used the Bungle Jungle by Tim and Beck for Moda designer fabric line and the Moda Bake Shop Baby Lattice pattern.  That was a challenge cause for the first time I was on a real deadline.  Finished the binding the weekend before the shower though, yay me!  [pullquote align=right]Quilting is more than a hobby to me, it’s my art.[/pullquote] After that I got ambitious and tried to make a very complicated quilt as a Christmas gift and fell back into the funk when I had to trim down 100 stupid little 4″ squares. I picked that quilt back up this spring (it was folded in my design wall for a very long time cause I couldn’t stand to look at it) and powered through it.

That was the start of the Christmas quilt spree of 2013.  Once that was dropped off for longarm services I immediately got going on the next Christmas quilt.  That one was almost done when I ran to the store to pick up the fabric for Christmas quilt #3.  I was so excited when I dropped the second quilt off that I could get the third quilt in line for the longarm service and all I had to do was have it ready by the time she got to mine in the queue.

The thing that’s killing me though (besides my shoulders and back) is that I can’t share the progress. They’re all beautiful pieces of art cause I don’t care what anyone thinks; quilting is art. I only piece, I don’t quilt but combine the amazing base patterns and blocks my quilts are built from, the stunning fabrics someone have produced, the painstaking hours of cutting, pressing, stitching, placing, re-arranging, seam ripping and re-stitching I put into the quilt, plus the beautiful heirloom quality quilting the long arm quilter uses to hold all that beauty together finally completed by my hours of hand stitching the binding.  That’s passion & that’s art.

Sorry got on a tangent there but It’s killing me that I can’t share my progress. I can’t share the happiness of finding 6 prints that compliment each other so well that they’ll make a beautiful (THIS STYLE) quilt cause it’s a Christmas gift for a relative who likes my Facebook posts.  I can’t complain and ask for support form the masses when trimming just one more of those blocks to 4 1/4″ might drive me mad.  I also keep posting vague photos so as not to give away too much detail!

Charms
144 squares
Backing fabric
So much pressing left

Christmas quilting is a very isolating sport and after this last one I am done for at least a year. My next quilts will be: completing my queen size quilt as a QAYG (quilt as you go) project, a scrappy look HST quilt that will probably be the death of me but will also be something I’ll be perfectly fine with walking away from between the ebbing and flowing quilt rage. Lastly there’s a charity quilt I’d like to put together with friends. Oh and then there’s a hexagon quilt I’m dying ot make from the fat quarters I get monthly from the Fat Quarter Shop Blogger’s Choice Bundles!! 2014 will be a season of fun quilting: no deadlines, no problems.

PS Can’t wait to post all the Christmas quilts after the 25th!  I wish I’d kept a private diary throughout each of their construction, it’d be an interesting gift to give along with the quilt.

Posted In: Quilting, Uncategorized

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Terri Ann of Childlike Fascination

I’m Terri Ann, a 30-something New England born and raised, cowboy boot wearing, website making, WordPress loving, picture taking contemporary quilter with obsessive crafting disorder. I make websites by day and quilts, crafty items, patterns & blogs by night!

I’m also the founder of QuiltAlong.net and Mini Barn Quilts.

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