No Mini, but a Major!

 No mini quilt this month,

but I do have a major top finished!

I have continued to work on my 

Stars Upon Stars quilt for the past couple of weeks.

And, now,  I'm happy to say,

the top is done.

This pattern originated from an antique quilt

found in the collection at the museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Amazing, huh!

The top was pieced in the 1890's.

I used the rubber stamp pattern from

Jeanneke.com. 

 

By stamping the template pieces,

the hand sewing was perfect and 

the star blocks were precise.

I had also bought the pattern from Laundry Basket.  

It was done with strip piecing and I knew I would not be

able to sew accurately enough to handle this method.

I did recalculate her sashing method

and used her idea for my stashing.  

I guess each method is dependent on how you like to sew.

It was fun to eventually lay out the blocks

and see the quilt coming together.

My design floor

Sewing the parts together was a challenge.

A lot of bias edges.

I admit I don't usually pin much,

but realized I needed to use lots of pins 

and a stylist to help keep everything under control.  

The long seams took over an hour to pin, sew and then press.

We all know there's a difference between pressing and  ironing.

The back of this quilt is amazing with the

amount of seams.

Pressing was key to keeping the blocks squared 

and not stretching them out of shape.

The perfect pressing is also key

when it comes to the quilting. 

I admit I'm an ironer, so I had to continue

to remind myself to press, not iron! 

So now this beauty is one step closer to being done.

There are no borders on this quilt and

I have stay stitched around the outer edge.

The new challenge will be to keep the edges from stretching

and then adding a straight binding at the end.

We'll see.

It has been a 2 year journey to get to this point.

Maybe it's time to put some fabric away.

I've kept all the fabrics in baskets and bags

so I wouldn't repeat fabrics.

It will be like having a new stash,

but now it's time to to find a backing

and get quilting!

I'm planning on machine quilting this myself,

mostly quilting in the ditch.

That alone will be challenge,

but aren't good things worth it?

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Using a Little Brain Power

 Trying to be efficient with your time

is one way to accomplish more than you 

might have anticipated.

I have spent the last couple weeks trying to do just that.

Have I been successful?

Well, I'm further ahead than I was, so

I guess, that would say I was making progress.

You might remember that I started working

on these Stars Upon Star blocks  about 2 years ago.

The blocks are hand pieced and all 15 stars are done, along 

with half stars and quarter stars.

I staled out when it came to the pieced sashing. 

This photo is Aline Joulin's quilt, Ogeechee, which I first saw

at Houston's International Quilt Festival in 2018.

Why haven't I been able to move forward?

Because I had to figure out the math to make these units! 

Finally, with some brain power, 

 I cut and sewed a practice piece and

much to my surprise, it seems to fit.  

So, in order to be as efficient as I could be

and make some progress,

I began cutting and organizing strips into sets of 5 to be machine pieced 

into sashing units.

It took several days to create 35 different combinations

and then to begin sewing them together.

I'm actually still sewing strips and

then when those are finally done, 

I'll sub cut 1.5" pieces. 

These units are sewn into a staggered pattern to make the 

sashing design.

Even though it gets a bit boring and repetitive to do 

the steps required for the 35 pieces all at the same time,

I find it an efficient approach for me.

I do try and pace myself so, that I don't

go too crazy or crazier than I already am.

We'll see how it all works out.  

Fingers crossed.

Until Next Time-

Kyle