Y'know, 3 years ago I thought it would be good to have the goal of making one large quilt each year out of my scraps. I made a quilt that year...it took me from Jan 1 to December 31 - no joke. I put the last stitches in the binding on New Year's Eve.
The following week I started Stars. The idea was to string piece all these pretty stars out of my scraps, the colour wheel concept kind of evolved out of that part of the process. It sat for months at a time, stalled. Mostly due to lack of time, never due to lack of scraps.
About 5 months ago I pushed and finished all the blocks and put them on the background. I've never been completely happy with the machine applique on this... it sat on the design wall, partly to cover the wall and partly to remind me that it needed to be quilted. I had lots of big ideas for the quilting, but never did any big drawings to go with it. One night I sat down with DH and after a lot of drawing on photocopies of the quilt photo, came up with the geometric groundwork for the area around the outer circle. I don't think I knew what I was going to quilt on it (motif-wise) until I put it on the machine yesterday. Then it started to come together really fast.
I'm still not happy with the machine applique. I'll trim and bind it, then wash it, then remove the machine applique and hand applique all those stars down instead. At that point I'll probably put it back on the machine and stitch in the ditch around that outer circle of stars.
That's the plan, anyway. The pesky part is that I have to wash it first as I used glue pins to hold it on the background while I stitched it on the machine. There are parts in the points that I'll not be able to force a needle through until after it is all washed.
For those who are interested, the quilt pattern is from a book called "Great Expectations" by Karey Bresenhan for That Patchwork Place. The quilt I made is the antique one featured on the cover (all in pastel colours on white). I used Hobbes Black 80/20 Heirloom Batting and Countess cotton threads in many bright and wonderful colours. My quilt finishes to about 75" square.
Am I going to make a third large scrap quilt? Probably. Goodness knows I have enough scraps. I've got one started here - mostly pieced, in fact. The thing is, I'd have to make two this year just to catch up to my original plan of doing one each year. Fat chance!
Happy stitching!
Lisa
5 comments:
That is a marvelous piece. Good luck on the applique! You are a better woman than I -- I'd probably leave it the way it is!
Thanks, Suzanne. It's in the washer right now, getting that pesky glue out. I'd have left it alone if it were going to just stay here with us, but I'll probably end up hanging it in the booth at shows - soooo, it gets fixed!
Lisa, it's beautiful! I'm not sure I could re-applique those stars either! I' think I'd hang it in the booth as is - no one will notice and if they do you can use it as a "teaching opportunity"....."what I WOULD have done differently!"
I have to agree with Suzanne and Vicki--I wouldn't reapplique it either. No one will even notice and if they are rude enough to say anything, well, Pheewt on them!
From where I am standing, it is stunning!
gorgeous stars...thanks for all the pattern info...and good luck with fixing it just the way you want it.
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