Swirling Sea of Stars

Making Stars

22 04 2013

I finally got a chance to start piecing my string quilt.

Okay, the other string quilt.

Yes, I now have two currently on the go. One will use fairly typical blocks – a simple 6″ square, with a strip of white down the middle to provide some rest. The other – Swirling Sea of Stars is officially underway! I got two blocks done – one was actually finished in the few minutes I had before I left for work this morning.

So far, my star points meet up reasonably well. I unfortunately had to print on 20# copy paper, due to the size of these quadrants, so I was kind of stressing whether or not that paper was too thick.

Once again, I find myself preferring the more narrow strips, but I refuse to go back and split those wider strings. The variety is needed, and they aid greatly in completing these string blocks.

I am eager to see how the darker solids look in this pattern, so I am going to do a set tonight with the purple and orange in the stars tonight. If I can keep to a set a day, I should be able to get this top done.

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Tags: Blocks, Swirling Sea of Stars
Categories : Scraps

24 03 2013

I know! Another quilt design, and yet one more intended to help me do away with my scraps and stash. I have to admit that this particular idea has been swimming around in my brain for about six months, gestating until it was ready to spring forth fully formed, like Athena from the cranium of Zeus.

In cleaning my sewing space and reorganizing my fabric stash, I came across fabrics that had been purchased with the intention of becoming an Ironworks quilt. I generally try to make each pattern that Sandi makes public, because I think she’s awesomely creative with designing quilts, and because her designs allow me to try new things. Such was the intent with Ironworks – a purely solid quilt, something that I haven’t yet done.

It’s been a while, though, since I bought these fabrics, and I find that I’d really rather not make Ironworks, at least for now. Rather, I’m very much of a mind to continue the pursuit of eliminating my scraps and using what I have on hand.

The design above allows me to do both of these things. Approximately two yards of each solid will be needed, which is what I have on hand. Another 1.25 yards will be needed for the binding, according to EQ7. This too, is easily accomplished. Five fabrics were purchased for Ironworks, and four of them will be used in the body of the quilt top. I’ll simply use the fifth fabric for binding.

For the sake of accuracy, I’ll paper-piece these. I’ll also use these as a leaders and enders project, to keep from getting burned out on these, as I have with the scrappy blocks for Frankenstein.