I must like stars more than I thought! Many of these
quilts
were
machine pieced and hand quilted, but since discovering machine quilting
I've done just as many by machine piecing and machine quilting. There
are even more stars on the next two pages (Feathered
Star Quilts and Lone
Star Quilts)
This one was completed in 1988. Thank goodness I've improved since
then.
I was influenced here by the typical black Amish background, but I used
pastels (pink, lavender, aqua) for the pattern, which was machine
pieced
and hand quilted. The quilt has now gone to live with my twin sister in
France.
Morning Stars
I fell in love with a sketch in a magazine and drafted this quilt from
that. I finished it in 1990, machine piecing and hand quilting it. I'd
never done eight-pointed stars before, so the centers were a bit
"hilly"
until they were quilted. But the quilt won Best of Show at our county
fair!
This one measures 43 1/2" x 35".
Mariner's Compass
This is another project from Quilt Camp in the Pines (1999). It's the
result
of a class with Gail Garber, which taught us how to draft and make this
pattern. It's machine pieced and hand quilted, and I left it small in
order
to hang it in a small spot in my kitchen.
Rolling Star
In January, 2000, I took a class from Jodi Barrows, using her Square in
a Square techniques to make this star quilt. It was machine pieced and
hand quilted. I know some people think this technique might be
difficult
because of the many bias edges, but I found it quick and easy -- if
you've starched the fabric first to prevent the otherwise inevitable
stretching!
It measures 35 1/2" x 46 1/2".
Patriotic Banner
Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, it was
impossible
to find a flag to hang at our home. However, I did find a pattern for
this
banner, thanks to Julie DeGroat's web site, which is unfortunately no longer there..
The banner measures 14" x 36" and was machine pieced and machine
quilted
on my little Featherweight.
Compass and Stars
In July, 2001, I took some
classes at
Quilt Camp in the Pines. This
was my fourth year there, and it gets better every time! I had two days
of classes with Sharyn Craig, one of which taught us a technique to
make
LeMoyne Stars (with their set-in seams) all but painless. I also had a
two-day class with Judy Mathieson. In that one, we learned to draft any
size and shape of Mariner's Compass, as well as curved flying geese to
surround the compasses. I wanted to make an oval compass, and I also
wanted
to use some of those wonderful LeMoyne Stars with it. This quilt is the
result of that idea. The quilt is entirely machine pieced and hand
quilted.
You can see the quilting better in the close-up below; I did
partial
compasses
in each of the large triangular areas between the narrow navy border
and
the stars, some simple shapes to accent the compass and the stars,
plumes
between the flying geese and the narrow border, small feathered sprays
between each star, and a large feathered vine in the outer border. I
finished
it in May of 2002, and it measures 51" x 57".
In April, 2003, I entered this quilt in our local quilt show,
where
it took second place in its category! Here it is all dressed up with
its
ribbon:
Hunter's Star
Here we go again. ;) I went
to Quilt
Camp in the Pines in July, 2005,
and took classes, as usual. One of them was Jan Krentz's Hunter's Star.
I chose a slightly different layout than the one featured in the class,
with the border that "finished" the stars at the edges
of the main portion. The quilt was made from Jan's
strip piecing method. Her book and sample showed 8" blocks, but I
chose to make 4" blocks and a 3" border, so my
project, finished in August, 2005, measures approximately 30" x
38". I laid this quilt out in Quilt Pro.
I used oriental-style prints
in indigos,
blues and purples; some of the fabrics had been in my stash for years.
<G> The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted,
using navy
silk thread in the body of the quilt and a blue/purple variegated
thread in the outer border. There is a corded piping between the outer
border and the binding; it is in the same fabric as the inner border.
Here is a detail where you may be able to see the quilting a bit better:
Update:
In March, 2006, this quilt won third place in its category
at
our local quilt show! Here it is at the show with its white ribbon:
Crown
I
took a class on precision piecing from Philippa Naylor at the Houston
Quilt Festival in 2008, but the top of this little piece sat in my pile
of "things to finish" for about a year. I finally machine quilted it,
finishing it in November, 2009. It measures approximately 20 1/2" x 21"
(so much for precision piecing. :( Actually, I think I messed up when I
sandwiched it for quilting.) and was entirely machine pieced and
quilted.
And here are a couple of close-ups of the feathers I so love to do. The
color in these is a bit "off", since I had to avoid using flash in
order to see the quilting in the photos. The first is the center
on-point block:
And here is part of the border:
Curvy Star
I really like Philippa Naylor's classes! I
took another one in November, 2011, this time on techniques of curved
piecing. As so often happens, though, I only finished the center
portion in class and let it languish in my pile of "to-dos" until
April, 2012. At that point, I decided to add the borders, quilt it and
finish it up. So I did! :)
This one is about 21" square, though
"square" is obviously not a consideration here. ;) This was only the
second time I'd done double corded piping next to the binding, and I
think it turned out rather well. It's entirely machine pieced and
quilted. Below is a detail of the piping. Because of the curved edges,
all of the piping and the binding were done with bias cuts.
Update! This quilt won third place in the
quilt show sponsored by our local guild in April, 2013. Ummm ... it's
hanging sideways here. ;)
