Star Light, Star Dark finished

This is my variation of Star Light, Star Dark from the QAL at Quilty Habit last summer.  The challenge was to use only three colours, six or seven fabrics in light tones and six or seven in dark.
I finished the piecing quite quickly, but when I got to that point I still hadn't decided on the quilting designs. The only thing I was clear about was that it needed doing in two halves to be joined later. (On 1 October last year I showed this in more detail)

I started with the dark half and tried to use a different quilting motif in each section. Each section has six or seven different fabrics and I wanted to use a different motif on each.

The centre star (yellow) was done with the walking foot, and having only half a quilt to turn the whole time was a Godsend.

square stippling in the big star; dot-to-dot from Angels Walters surrounding it; orange peel shapes in the centre of the friendship star; stippling surrounding it; baptist fan centre right; vine with leaves top left

The green section went OK too, though admittedly with a few wobbles. Then I tried doing feathers in the large dark purple star. What a disaster! I just can't backtrack, so there was such a build up of thread along the spine of the feathers I thought, "this bird would never get off the ground!"

Then I decided that there was only one thing for it - unpicking all the feathers - which took me every evening for a week. Then I tried swirls, after all I would only have to follow the motif of the print. No! What a mess! Fortunately this time I decided after just a couple of minutes that it had to go. Out it all came! Totally disheartened by my failures in the dark half of the quilt I moved onto the light section until I got distracted by Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt. That was in November! That was how it stayed for more than half a year.

Matrix rays from Leah Day in the big star; dot to dot from Angela Walters surrounding it; McTavishing top left

Until two weeks ago when I thought of Leah Day and all her online FMQ videos. That dark purple fabric wouldn't stand another unpicking session so I needed something simple and foolproof. I chose Matrix Rays, and the quilting was finished in no time. All that remained was to join the two halves and then a lot of hand sewing to cover the join on the back, and to sew down the binding.

Square Flower from Lori Kennedy in the centre of the dark purple friendship star

I was pleased with how this square flower turned out. I quilted square flowers in all three purple Friendship Stars, but this one turned out best. In the green F.Stars I quilted orange peels, and in the yellow spirals.

McTavishing in the big star; fantasy leaves surrounding it; more McTavishing in the freehand drawn heart (!!); string of beads bottom left (from Pinterest: origin unknown)

In the light purple block I used more McTavishing;  I used this quilting style three times in this quilt. So much for using a different motif on each fabric. I really found it hard to come up with enough quilting motifs.

Fabric: assorted fat quarters and scraps
Thread: Aurifil 40 wt. in matching colours
Wadding: cotton as supplied at my LQS
Size: 1.75m x 1.27m (69" x 50")

Finally one more photo to show why all the photos were taken indoors this afternoon.

I draped it artistically over the bench, took two steps back and took a photo just as the wind caught it. As I live on the ninth floor I didn't want the wind carrying it away altogether: I'd never catch up with it!

I'm linking up to

so go over there and see more of this week's finishes.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Star Light, Star Dark finished top, plus ...

For the Star Light ,Star Dark quilt along at Quilty Habit I made a big effort to get my quilt completely finished before the link-up ends on Monday. I know now I'm not going to make it! There is no way I can quilt the right half, join the two halves and get on the binding by Monday. So, although half quilted, I'm linking this to the "finished top" category.

On 3 September I took this photo of the blocks, more as a reminder of the layout than for publication, but it's the only one I had of all the blocks before today.

3 September

1 October: left: quilted; right: only layered and pinned!

here are some close ups of the quilting so far:

dark green with small stars

dark yellow

dark purple

The reverse of the dark purple star - poor quilting: to unpick or not to unpick, that is the question!

 On the large dark purple star I quilted feathers, from the centre into each of the star points. At least I tried to quilt feathers, but this bird had weathered a hurricane! Feathers of very dark and busy fabric was a mistake: I could hardly see where I was going! I'm seriously considering unpicking, but as my husband pointed out, "No-one can see them on the dark purple anyway!". Of course we can see the mess on the back, but looking now at the photos I see that the purple insert coincides with the worst of the feathers! Maybe they'll stay!

small dark purple star

small dark yellow star

Reverse, showing the quilting:
















 
(I really wanted to put these two photos side by side, but my Canon software doesn't seem to run to making a panorama view and Blogger won't co-operate either.)




I'm not proud of the dot to dot quilting: the lines are far too wobbly, but I'm leaving them. I hate unpicking quilting.

Statistics:
Fabric: Assorted FQs from stash, Bella solid "sand"(?) for backing with an inset from stash (nameless)
Thread:  Aurifil 40 wt - 2324 (light khaki) bobbin; 5017 (green); 2540 (purple); 2130 (yellow)
Wadding: Cotton
Quilted on my Bernina 440.

Now I'm going to further plan the quilting of the light side. I hope I'll have finished by the end of this month.

I'm linking up to 

 

Pop over there and see all the fascinating interpretations of this quilt. 

Don't forget to look at all the categories! 

Happy Sewing

Marly.

RSC 16: September is pink with yellow

Each month Angela gives a colour to be used from the scrap bin, and this month the colour is pink with some yellow. We had already used pink earlier in the year, but I managed to find some pink (some the same fabric I used before) and some pink and yellow. I made half an extended bear paw block.

I think I'll still be making these next year!

The last few days I've been working on a present for a friend:

which also has a lot of pink and yellow. As she sometimes reads my blog I'm not publishing photos of  the whole thing until next weekend!

Now I'm also trying to quilt my Star Light, Star Dark quilt before the QAL deadline at Quilty Habit on Monday week. This is a view of the three blocks on the dark side:

and a close up of the quilting so far:

not much done yet!

As I'm quilting each half separately and then joining by QAYG technique I have a feeling I'm not going to make the deadline!

A short post this week, but now you know why! I'm now off to fit the supreme slider and the BSR and hit the FMQ big time!

I'm linking up to:

      

 so pop over there and see what others have been doing with their scraps this week.

Happy sewing

Marly.

SL, SD progress report linky party

The "Star Light, Star Dark" QAL is being hosted by Jessica at Quilty Habit. The blocks are really large: the sawtooth stars in the photo below each measure 18.5" square.


When I posted this photo on Friday I got a lot of helpful comments both here and on Facebook. Thank you to all those who gave their advice.

on the design wall: each block measures one quarter of a square yard!

Suggestions ranged from the simple - move the position of dark purple back to between the other two dark blocks (from Jessica) (done immediately, but no photo!) - to the expensive - remake both blocks (hallo!). Gina suggested appliqué on the centre of the stars which would certainly liven up the dark purple, and someone else, (I think in the FB group, but I can't find the comment, sorry) suggested quilting the dark purple with contrasting thread to brighten it, and to pick out the shape of the star.

So Saturday morning: took loads of b/w photos to check the values of the remaining purple fabric; finished the small green stars, and made three purple; added the other green pieces and auditioned purple fabric to complete the blocks.

I won't bore you with all the photos, but this was the best I could manage. You would never believe that in the b/w photos the background to the light stars looked (marginally) lighter than the long "dark" strip. Marginally, it's true, but LIGHTER! That's it! All my other purple pieces are more mauve than purple, or too small for the job!

So off came the purple after much online searching for suitable purple fabric to fill the gaps

And on came the yellow:

I had lots of dark yellow pieces left from Allietare!, the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt last December, so that wasn't a problem, but in light yellow I had less choice. Finally I settled for this:

Really dismal photo late in the afternoon., even with a spotlight!

and by the time you read this I will probably have the yellow blocks sorted!

As for the purple blocks, when I measured the green blocks I realised this is going to finish at almost 50" square as it is here. In this house that's enough for a lap quilt, so the purple blocks could go onto the back. On the other hand when the fabric I ordered arrives, and is what I think it is (!!!) I may be able to finish them and make this full size!

This is still very much Work In Progress.

I'm linking up to:

so pop over there to see the amazing quilts other people are making.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Star Light, Star Dark - large stars pieced

I'm quilting along with Jessica at Quilty Habit in making the Star Light, Star Dark quilt. I'm behind schedule as I got distracted by another project a couple of weeks ago!

However, my big stars are pieced, and the small stars are progressing, but no photos of them just yet.

top row: dark, light, dark; bottom row: light, dark, light - I'm not satisfied!

I don't like the way this is going; the dark purple is too dark, and the light purple resembles the other two dark stars in value. This is an exercise in contrast, so I've learnt my lesson! The problem shows up more clearly in the b/w photo:

Why, oh why didn't I see this before I started?

So that's my problem, but how can I remedy it? Does anyone out there have a suggestion?

Happy sewing

Marly.