Inspired by Debra's wonderful homeless teen quilt project, I quilted a guild charity quilt that I put together back in November. It's nothing special, but it was a chance to practice free-motion on the Janome using the push button control rather than the foot pedal. The results are very good. It's by far the best free motion quilting I've ever done. It seemed to take much longer though because I set the speed at medium and so had to move the quilt rather slowly. Usually I sew fast and drag the quilt around, trying desperately to keep up so the stitches don't get tiny. Once I got used to the slower and steady pace, I liked it.

I also invested in a bobbin case specially designed for free motion stitching. I don't know what the difference is, but this too seemed to give good results. I used Superior Bottom Line thread in the bobbin, and there are no pops and pulls at all, even though the top thread was a different color and a heavier weight. I don't know if other machines have this option, but I think it was worth the money.

I think I've come to a decision on how to proceed with the red and white stars, but have nothing to show for the mental gear clashing that has been going on. Maybe by spring--

Speaking of spring: we're having the worst winter weather here in years. Day after day of single digit temperatures, wind, and the infamous lake effect snow. A break in the weather would be good!

And finally, if you haven't looked at the Cyber Fyber Exhibition web site, be sure to do that. The postcards and ATC's are worth a bit of time for browsing, and the invited artists' work is eye-opening. I'd love to see it in reality.

Well, Duh!

Yes, you do have to include the width of the sashing strips when you figure the size of the setting triangle. If you don't you will get this weird looking yellow triangle where the block sticks over into the triangles.

If you do, the setting triangle neatly matches the end of the block.

As I was cutting the triangles, the book I was using (which I won't name) didn't mention how sashing would affect triangle size, so although I THOUGHT the triangle should be bigger, I managed to convince myself that I had done this before, kept the size the same, and it worked. It didn't.
Then I looked in Setting Solutions by Sharyn Craig, and there it is: a clear statement that you must include the sashing width, therefore cutting a bigger triangle. She has a neat little chart, telling you what size to cut, so there's no math required.

I was in denial for a while, thinking that the weird look would go when I squared up, trimmed the excess and added a border, but I finally had to face the truth, rip those triangle out, and sew in bigger ones.

Actually, this isn't as bad as it sounds. I have postponed making a decision on the next step. Still, it was pretty much a wasted day. So be warned, everyone.

I'm excited! Here's the center section of the red star quilt. It seems huge to me, but will be bigger, and rather less red, I think. I have to square off, do the math to figure out how wide the narrow framing red piece will be, and then how wide the yellow strip will be, and frame all the little stars, and then plan the applique on the yellow ring.

Slowly...

I have decided on a layout for my red and white star piece. I imagine the plain yellow space filled with a red, vine-like applique and circular shapes in red and white prints. At least that's the current plan. The plain area might need to be wider for bigger visual rest, and I'm also not sure about the red area around the center. I might also go for a pieced, ribbon type border instead of the applique. It's been incredibly difficult to come to this decision, considering how simple it really is. The biggest hurdle seemed to be deciding on a size, meaning how many of those stars do I really want to make! This plan is a smallish queen, bigger than originally intended, but potentially more practical. It has also committed me to hiring a long arm quilter too, I guess.

I have three more of the split Lemoyne stars to do, and twenty (yes twenty!) of the smaller plain ones. They are going faster now, and I have improved; in fact I'm proud of these last two. Pretty nice points if I do say so myself.

And while I'm boasting: My quilt, Ghost Orchids was accepted into this year's Road to California! (Detail shot here.) This was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a "thanks-but-no-thanks blah, blah, blah" letter.

Nothing much quilty to report. I have made more red and white stars and have a bit of an idea for how I might set this quilt up. It's moving slowly, and I haven't touched it for several days. We went to Chicago for the weekend, and are having old friends stay for a few days starting tomorrow. It will be fun to watch election results with them; fortunately we agree politically, and we're hoping for a reason to drink champagne besides just pure sociability. (Nothing wrong with that, of course.)

Perfecting the Product

One thing I don't like about making these stars is using a template. You can rotary cut diamonds ordinarily, but to make the stripes or plaids chevron into the center you have to use a template. I started by tracing around the template, but even though I cut inside the line, it still wasn't totally accurate, and some of the stars have these little bumps.

Then I checked my copy of Sally Collins' book Mastering Precision Piecing, and tried her technique of cutting around the template with a small rotary cutter. She says the secret of not shaving the template is to keep the cutter on the fabric until the cut is complete, not lifting it. This seems to work. I bought a small rotary cutting board for this process, and the price was worth it.

Here's a better looking star I made with the new cutting technique.

More Stars, and Organization Tool

I've made a couple more stars, the plain ones because I need practice before tackling those split ones. It's fascinating to see the effect of different stripes, and of course the same stripes going around the star instead of vertically look different still. The possible variations help to make something that goes quite slowly interesting.



And here's a free, recycled organization tool. These are the plastic boxes that salad greens come in. I've found them wonderful for sorting different cut-out pieces, threads, or other parts of the work-in-progress mess. They stack, and so don't take up much room, and the items are easily found. I don't save the covers to use because stacking provides built-in dust protection. And of course using the containers like this helps me feel less guilty for buying expensive, wastefully packaged stuff! Also, the soup kitchen where I volunteer gets lots of donated cakes, and the plastic lids from those make good larger bins for storing pieces of fabric I've pulled for future projects.

Wheel Spinning Continues...

Another project idea that I've had for a while is a Lemoyne Star quilt using red and white striped fabrics, sort of a peppermint effect. I don't know whether I would go with the split star, or the plain one, or both. The split is really pushing the envelope of my piecing skill; I've done it, but the results are far from perfect, as this one shows. The irregular stripe makes it look worse that it is. Striking block though, isn't it? I don't have a plan for how to set them either. My inclination at the moment is to go ahead and make a bunch of blocks and see what happens.

If anyone has any tips for pressing these blocks, I'd appreciate hearing them. I used Alex Anderson's instructions, and she presses the center seams open. That seems very bulky, but perhaps bulk is unavoidable.