Tag: Piecing

Star Explosion Top is off the to-do list

Yesterday, I posted about the last stretch of piecing for the center of the Star Explosion top, leaving it at this point…..

Now I needed to add some corners to the top but REMEMBER that the background fabric was in short supply!!

I decided to map it out before I started cutting fabric….

….and then made a “template” for the corner…..

Using this pattern I was able to cut one large rectangle and then split it into two triangles for each corner!!

WITH SOME FABRIC LEFT OVER!!

So now the top is finished……

…and I a SUPER happy with it!!

Keep coming back as I baste and quilt this beauty!!!

Star Explosion…the next chapter

Over the last 2 months, you have seen bits and pieces of my latest quilt called “Star Explosion”. When I last posted explicitly about the quilt, it was at this stage……

.

….and I had run out of cream-colored fabric!! I figured I needed 3 more yards and was starting to panic when I couldn’t find more. Finally, I found one store with 1-3/4 yards and another with 1-1/4 yards. THAT was a relief!!!!

Once I had the fabric in hand, it was time to decide where the quilt was headed next!!!

I felt that I needed to pull some of the “duller” colors in the center star to the outside of the quilt so I started playing with possibilities……

Maybe cubes…..

……or stripes……

Definitely NOT!!!

What about some smaller stars…..

YEP….that is where I am heading!!

My first thought was exactly HOW I was going to do all of the inset seams where the star meets the background, but I finally realized that I could piece the star first…..

and then add the background to the COMPLETED star…..

SO MUCH EASIER!!!

It was important for me to match the star points when I began adding these long strips and I used a four-part sewing process….

I would first match the points……

….and pin them into place…..

….carefully laying out the rest of the strip and pinning it well.

Next, I used a basting stitch to sew those points together…..

When they looked ok……

…..I went back and sewed the full seam using a normal stitch length…..

Yes, it was a bit time-consuming, but it meant that I didn’t need a lot of quality time with my seam ripper!!!

Now, the majority of the piecing is finished……

Come back tomorrow as I turn this fun design into a square-ish top!!

More Bargello play

Yesterday I wrote about a new Bargello play time and left you with the top laid out and ready to piece…..

In the light of the new day, it was time to start piecing it together!!

The first step was to piece the two sections together…..

…..to form one long strip and then to put two strips together…..

This is where I ran into a small problem!!

As I had pieced the two strata, I had been careful to have the seams pressed to alternating sides. If I were sewing this like a normal bargello, that would have meant that each seam would nest beautifully.

But, since I was messing with the order of the strips I kept coming upon intersections where the two seams were going in the same direction…..

I didn’t like that so I carefully folded back the top seam…..

….and sewed it in place…..

When I started ironing the long seam, I spritzed the top fabric with water….

…and re-ironed the seams so that they fell in the correct direction….

The other issue that I encountered was trying to figure out which of the seams I needed un-sew so that I could add it to the top of the strip!!

I spent a lot of time referring to my photo and then stuck a pin in at the bottom of the piece where the seam needed to be ripped out…..

That simple solution made the piecing a lot easier!!

In no time I had the bargello top finished……

It was time to add borders but those had to wait until I was in my studio and could view my ENTIRE stash!!!

In the end, I added two borders…..a purple one to pull out some of the purple hues in the piece and a green one to frame it…..

I am pleased with this second bargello!!

BUT…..now it is time to start thinking about the Bargello Challenge that is due in December. How am I going to make a Bargello quilt that reflects my feelings during the COVID mania??

I had better start thinking!!!

Bargello Play #2

Last month I wrote about the first of my Bargello play quilts…..

While at my Guild Retreat, I decided that I would try it again with some variations.

My original thought was to figure out how to make the lines twist and turn but I finally realized that I could buy a pattern for that so why did I need to reinvent the wheel!!

Actually…….I was just being lazy but the excuse sounds better!!

I found a jelly roll in one of the many bags of fabric that I had brought to the retreat and picked out two sets of fabrics…..

These gorgeous pinks…..

…and these luscious greens…..

I sewed each set together into a strata and then started sub-cutting…..

I did not keep any particular order for the cuts….they were all different sizes. But, I was careful about cutting the same size strip from each stratum.

Now came the fun part of laying out the strips…..

It was interesting to see how much difference it made when the strips were sewn in different orientations!!

At this stage, it was bedtime so I left this pinned to the design board….

and headed for some good sleep.

Come back tomorrow for the finish!!!