The Most Quiltiest Time...

Here's the sky outside at about 8:15 this morning. I'm sure that all over the northern hemisphere people are looking out at similar scenes these days. The clouds are so thick that the street lights come on in the middle of the afternoon, and inside we have the lights on all day. Nothing inspires me to quilt more than a day like this! To me it's the most, quiltiest time of the year.

Bonnie Hunter's first clue for En Provence came out this morning. You can read it here, for the next two months. We're making a whole bunch of all-white four patch blocks. "Woo hoo," I thought at first, "easy!" But...then I thought maybe this would be a fun place to do something silly with my flamingo fabric...

"Maybe I should wait and see how the squares are used before I make any commitments," I thought. (Although, on further reflection there's no way I'm going to fussy cut this fabric 200+ times. But, I decided to wait and see, so that's what I'll do.)

Outside, it is still perfect quilting weather:

Plus, I've been waiting all month to start a new project today. A new project. Today.

Allietare is the obvious substitution. It's so close to finished.

All the red blocks are done, and I just have seven of the black star blocks left.

So, I put this one together. Six left.

Then I remembered that it's AHIQ again this week! Thank goodness! The Allietare blocks are beautiful, but they are slow going with a lot of seams to match. 

Back in October I started a new improv-ish project. But I only made a couple of blocks before my back fell apart. Now I have like a "free week" to get that moving. This is it -- Liberated Stars!

These are Gwen Marston's style of liberated star block. I love the way they look, and they are fun to make, too. I should have had some in my Gwennie Medallion, but I wanted to re-purpose those bear claws instead.

Now I've decided to make a whole quilt of liberated stars. Liberated Stars for a New Day.

Yes! Remember this crazy thing?

That will be the centre. It's still a medallion, but Sue Garman's feathered star is the only thing left of her pattern. Last year I simplified it by enlarging all the pieces to suit my low-thread count fabric. This year I am going to liberate all the stars, large and small. 

I plan to make it much scrappier, too. I bought a lot of that Heirloom Manor collection from Connecting Threads (on sale now), which is very brown and tan. Now it will be primarily used for the backgrounds, and I'll use brighter scraps for the stars.

In fact, all those bright yellow star points are reclaimed fabric from Cardinal Stars. I had tons left over when I redesigned it, and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it all out.

I spent one evening watching tv with the seam ripper, and reduced the old hsts back into triangles. I know it seems crazy, and you may be relieved to know that the black triangles all went in the garbage!

But, I really think it was worth it, because you need triangles anyway to make the liberated stars, and everything was just the right size.

And this intense yellow does look sharp on the navy background:

There are some Brinton Hall leftovers in the centres, too. 

Scrappy and liberated seems way more interesting than my previous plans for this quilt. I've been thinking about and redesigning Stars for a New Day for years now. I guess it takes as long as it takes, because this is the plan that has traction and that I am 100% happy with. Another star quilt!

Let's hope I can do a little more before Bonnie's next clue for En Provence. :D

Old and New Stars

...or "This and That"

...or "Still Sewing, Thanks!"

I know I've been absent from the blogosphere for a while, but I'm just resting my typing joints again. I've still managed a little sewing!

I put together two of the enhanced star blocks for Bonnie Hunter's Allietare:

Now it is just the steady work of putting together all the remaining Allietare blocks.

For a change of pace, I tried out one of the "feature" stars from Sue Garman's Stars for a New Day:

I'm going to be making dramatic changes and simplifications to Sue's design on this one. The fabric I bought for this project has a very low thread count, and a fairly large printed design, so I've decided to enlarge all the feature blocks from 6" to 9". That's a 9" block above, and you can see how much it is fraying, even with minimal handling. It's also quite stretchy. Sue's pattern uses mostly paper-pieced HSTs. My plan is to reduce the number of seams, and use the F&P half and quarter square ruler (that I bought for Allietare) to cut and piece it traditionally. It worked well enough.

Despite the low thread count, I still really like the fabric. I know that with washing it will get nice and soft, and a cozy brown quilt for late autumn is what I have in mind. Scaling up the blocks means I'll need fewer for a queen-size quilt, and a couple of the borders have to be eliminated too. So hopefully it will go fairly fast! (Once I finish all these other things...)

And, I've also finally finished off these old star blocks:

Mysteriously out of focus

Truly, a "soft focus" is a blessing on those blocks! I realized over the holidays that this is now my oldest UFO, started in November 2010 and intended as a Christmas present that year. Chuckle.

I've been itching to clear out some old projects, and this one is maybe a day and a half away from a finished flimsy. Each block will get a jade green border...

...and then the eight blocks will be set with some wintry sashing and borders and it'll finally be done! So as usual I am spoiled for choice around here. I've noticed that every winter and summer I'm in the mood to finish things, and every spring and fall I tend to start a bunch of things. So I'm hoping to make room for the new projects that are inevitably around the bend!

Feathered Star

I'm still not sure that I should have done it, but I did, and here it is!

This is Sue Garman's feathered star pattern, which is Month 1 of Stars for a New Day. It was the 2009 Block of the Month at The Quilt Show, and now you can buy the pattern on Sue's website. I've been holding onto the instructions since 2009, waiting for the right time to start it.

Almost three years ago I bought some of the Victorian Modern collection by Weeks Ringle for this same quilt. But that just never felt right.

This fabric is all from Connecting Threads, and most of it is their new Heirloom Manor collection. I loved it immediately, and I also thought it would work well for some fancy, fussy-cut English paper piecing. "But I'm not going to do that," I said to myself! "I'm still working on Texas Star, which is all EPP, and after that I have Best Friends Forever."

Then I remembered Stars for a New Day, and I bought it. While I was washing it all, I thought again how ideal it would be for fussy cutting. "But that would be stupid," I said to myself. "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Ironically, it was while I was doing some improv sewing that I decided to just go for it. Improv seems to foster a "why not?" attitude, I've found.

This freezer paper frame idea is adapted from Janet's idea at Quiltsalott. You position and lightly iron down the frame...

...then iron the template down in the middle, and peel off the frame. I reused the frame, but made separate templates for each piece, and scissors cut them all with a generous seam allowance.

I ended up fussy cutting almost every piece. The navy diamonds and small tan triangles were cut to avoid the pattern and make them more solid-coloured. In for a penny, in for a pound!

In the end, though, the fussy cutting was not the tricky part of the block. The tricky part is right here:

If you ever find yourself judging a feathered star, that is the place to look. But, you definitely shouldn't judge it unless you've tried it yourself! The first one took me five tries, and then I wised up and basted each seam first.

Until I got to that point, I was thinking that it is a surprisingly forgiving pattern! The blue feathers are foundation paper pieced, so it is easy to keep them all sharp, and Sue's pattern eliminates the Y seams.

Anyway, there it is, and now I will pack it away until the new year. While I was working on it yesterday, zoned out in the blue, white, blue, white, paper piecing, I had another idea for a new improv project! But, surely I have enough already...

When in Doubt...

...start a new project!

I know, I know, where are all those finishes I've been promising? Well, I've been working on something different every day, mostly to avoid the quilting on my nine patch quilt. Jillian suggested a while ago that I was  Wonder Woman for my endurance on another project. I wish I was, because I could sure use Wonder Woman's help when I'm stuffing these quilts through my little sewing machine! I am less than halfway done with the nine patch, and I am already reconsidering my quilting plans for all my future projects, lol. Maybe the next step will be to rent some time on a longarm.

These fabrics above are from the new Victorian Modern collection from Andover. I bought them from a new place for me, Ladyfingerssewing.com, and I was very happy with them - fast service and great prices.

The colours in my photo, and also in the shop photos, are not true. When you see them in real life they have a brownish undertone, rather than the grey undertone I expected from a collection using the word "modern." In any case they are still really nice, but I am glad I waited to buy the co-ordinating blenders until I had the fabrics.

That's what I did today! I saw on Debra's blog that The Quilt Store in Newmarket had all their fabrics half price (today was the last day, unfortunately), so I tootled up there with my fabrics in hand and bought these:

And this is the background fabric:

What's it all for? Stars for a New Day!