The Hokey Pokey Approach To Quilt Making

I'm assuming most of us have

danced to the song "The Hokey Pokey."

You know.

"You put your right foot in, 

You take your right foot out"...

I usually hear that little ditty a couple times a week,

when my little grandson is here having lunch.

Music to eat by!

Anyway, it got me thinking about

how similar my approach to my newest

project has been to the song...

one step at a time.

1.  You put your right foot in....

When I was in Houston for Quilt Festival 

this past fall,

I saw Aline Joulin's 

remarkable quilt .

"Ogeechee"

which was inspired by an American quilt 

found at the Grand Rapids Public Museum

and dated 1846.

I fell in love.

2. You put your left foot in

and you shake it all about...

I discovered that Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts

had a pattern of this awesome quilt.

And then discovered that Quiltmania 

was going to publish the pattern in

issue #128. 

Her method is a strip piecing method

for the machine using 1" strips.

3. You put your left arm in

you take your left arm out...

Well, I know my sewing capabilities.

And I knew that would be a challenge

making those 1/2" diamonds to come out right.

But I discovered

that Jeanne at Jeanneke.com in the Netherlands

had a stamp set just for this quilt.

Stars Upon Stars.

It would be a great solution,

hand piecing,

stamping rather than tracing the shapes,

and the diamonds finished at 3/4".

I ordered the set.

There is one more diamond shape in the set.

I was using it today.

My left arm was back in!

4. You put your right arm in...

More thinking and deciding.

What style would I make,

what colors,

what fabrics....

And you shake it all about...

5. You put your backside in,

You take your backside out...

I had decided on trying to use

many of Di Ford's fabrics from Andover

leaning towards, teals, pinks, reds, golds, 

browns, beiges, and creams.

I pulled fabrics for the first star.

The first block of a sampler

 is always the hardest for me.

Too many options.

I laid out my choices,

But I needed to see them in the right proportions

Using the rubber stamps, which are terrific,

I cut out enough small diamonds

to make one diamond point

and used a hinged mirror to

see how these fabrics looked together. 

After a few changes,

I decided this would work.

6. You put your whole self in

You take your whole self out

You put your whole self in

and you shake it all about...

I have officially jumped in.

This is not a fast project.,

but one to savor.

Here's my progress over the week.

I'm super excited.

I'll let you know when  

the the first whole star is complete.

Until then...

Let's do the hokey pokey 

That's what it's all about!

Until Next Time-

Kyle