Bethlehem Star

Last year a made a quilt for Joe's nephew and his wife.  Pat commented that they argue over who gets to use it so I thought I'd make them another one.  I don't want to be responsible for family fights!  😎

I'm still chipping away at my stash so this was an excuse to use a group of fabric that I like but just hadn't found a good project for.  It's mostly flowers so I decided on the Bethlehem Star block, which I've seen used in other quilts and liked - it sort of looks like a flower.  I don't often do standard block quilts, so this is a bit of a change for me.  I get bored making the same block over and over again!  

I drafted this out as a 12" block, cut most of the white bits and a lot of coloured bits then made the first block.  It turns out they take well over an hour to make - at least for me - maybe I'm slow.  But they are fussy.  I thought if I hadn't cut so much out, I would have reprinted in a larger size (it's easy to do with EQ8).  But I had so much cut I just kept making them.  I put a 1 1/2" sashing between the blocks and around the outside but I wanted it a bit bigger so added a border rather than make any more blocks  - 20 was enough!

In the end, I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I did a facing instead of binding on this quilt and I really like the way it looks.  I've done a few minis with facing just for practice and I think I've "got it" now!  I did this one simply because I didn't have a suitable binding fabric.  I actually was going to use the striped fabric for binding but decided to make the quilt bigger so used it as a border instead (a really wide binding!  😎).  I used the backing fabric for the facing.

In the beginning.... there were blocks.

And then there were more blocks....

The blocks consist of HSTs, FGs, squares and a "house" block (square with two corners cut off).  I used three Studio 180 tools - the Tucker Trimmer to do the HSTs, the Wing Clipper for the FGs and Corner Pop for the houses.  They produce really nice blocks quite easily.  (I'm not on the payroll, but like the product, I have it, so use it.)

I  took this pix (above) once I hit the bottom row after stitching-in-the-ditch  - I went around all the blocks between colour and white - and between the border and white using Wonderfil Decobob thread.

Above, ditching is complete.  So, time to start actual quilting (below).  I switched out to Glide thread.

Between the "flowers" this secondary design element emerged.  I didn't know how I wanted to quilt it.  In fact, the only thing I knew when I loaded it was that I wanted the horizontal and vertical lines between the "flowers".  Didn't know how I was going to quilt the flowers or this open area.  (If I waited until I knew how I would quilt a quilt before I put it on the frame, I'd never get any quilts quilted!)  I did know I wanted to "frame" it so it would stand out as a separate design element.  As I went across this first row doing the vertical/horizontal lines, I drew out some design ideas for the secondary space using my air erase purple pen.  The one above is a "no". (I don't always do it this way - sometimes I sketch on paper - sometimes I just start quilting.)

This one (above) - also a "no" - looks too much like a military medal - don't want that.

Above - "maybe".  In the end - this is  the one I went with - you'll see it stitched out below.

Above - "Maybe"

I actually stitched this one out - that's when I didn't like it.  I think the idea is a good one but I would want to make a template and carefully stitch it so it's all  as "perfect" as I can get it and I didn't want to take that time.  Not for this quilt.  So I ripped it out.  You'll see the one I went with stitched out below.

Here is a "frame" for the secondary design.

More quilting and I'm back to the top (ditched top to bottom and rather than roll back up, simply started quilting from the bottom and worked back up to the top).

Here we are with a stitched out secondary design.  I like it.  I used my trusty circle rulers - very fast, everything is "perfect" - symmetrical.  Just the way I wanted it to be.

This is what went into the partial secondary spaces along the border.

And I had to work out how to stitch the flowers.  This is what I settled on - I opted not to quilt the printed "house" sections.  I used my large "boomerang" ruler to do the centres.  I wanted a smooth curve, but it had to be relatively flat.  Using a section of this ruler worked out well.

This will be gifted in September.

T-Shirt Quilt #3

It's a fun challenge to do an occasional T-shirt quilt.  I will only do one if I can custom design it - I don't want to just cut the Ts into 12" blocks and sew them together - boring!!!!  So if a customer is willing to take a chance on my whimsical mind, I will consider doing a quilt for them with their prized Ts.

This one came in from Heather.  She had secretly collected up all her fiance's favourite rock'n'roll Ts with one very special one that she wanted as the centre.  The quilt was to be a wedding gift for their August wedding.  I think I can blog about it now as it's almost the end of August and I figure Jonathan will be a bit distracted by the latest events and won't be worried about searching the internet for a T-shirt quilt that he won't know about until it is given as a gift - which it probably has been by now!  😎

With the exception of one white, one grey and one sort of pinkish T, they were all black, which was a challenge as I like to use the unprinted left-over parts of the shirts to make "filler blocks" - but all black is just no fun for me!  So I went to my stash of Kona cotton and managed to find some reasonably close matches for the colours in the central guitar T.  The guitars are quite colourful.  I used the Kona and the background/backing Thicket cotton (chosen by Heather) to make a bunch of diamond blocks.  I cut these with my new Studio 180 Diamond Rects tool.  Works like a charm.  I also made some square-in-square blocks - also cutting/trimming with a Studio 180 tool.  No - I don't sell them, and don't get a commission - I just started using these tools and really like them.  That is all.

I don't have a scientific design method.  I cut the printed parts of the Ts into blocks divisible by some constant number - although even that is not a rule as there are times when that just doesn't work. Which is why I need filler blocks.  The Ts don't snap together like Lego, so I make them fit by putting in the filler blocks.  I try to arrange them in a nice way on my design wall - then sew them all together.

And below is the back - I put a couple of labels in and used up the last four diamonds that didn't make it into the front.  One label is the "to Jon from Heather" label and the other is my "made by..." label.

When Heather picked it up, she seemed really happy with it - always a relief!  She is a very nice young lady and I wish her and Jonathan all the very best!!!!

Wish Upon (a Star)

Here is Gail's "Wish Upon" quilt.  Gail is a certified Studio 180 instructor and is going to Russia (Russia!!!) for a quilt show there.  She's taking some of her quilts and of course will teaching Studio 180 techniques.  This quilt, as well as some others, was made using Studio 180 tools.  She asked me to do some "cool" quilting.  What do you think?  Cool?