Monthly Archives: January 2014

Reach for the Stars: Block 2

Yesterday I finished Block 2 of Reach for the Stars, a lovely sampler quilt featured in Quilter’s Newsletter, with directions spaced over seven issues beginning with Oct./Nov. 2013. The quilt, designed by Terri Krysan, features a center medallion surrounded by 14 blocks, all on point.

I’ve already posted pictures of my Blocks 1 and 3 and the center medallion. To refresh your memory:

2014-01-22 01.00.55
Reach for the Stars: My Blocks So Far

 

And here is Block 2:

2014-1 RTFS block 2 on point 1
Block Measures 17″ Across on Point

 

The magazine’s cutting and piecing directions are abbreviated at best, so I am studying each block in advance, challenging myself to figure out how to cut the fabrics and piece the components in a way that will yield the most accurate final block measurements.

Case in point: the hourglass blocks in the corner squares.

Each corner block contains two squares — one green and one blue, in my version — and two hourglass blocks, each composed of two blue and two green triangles.  The hourglass blocks are sewn to the squares, forming a 4″ finished square. Each hourglass block finishes at 2″ square.

The magazine calls for the hourglass sections to be cut from 3-1/4″ squares. To be precise, four quarter-square triangles cut from one square. Do you have any idea how small these triangles would be and how difficult it would be to sew the bias edges together and press them without any distortion? I know I couldn’t do it. I press with a heavy hand and am sure I would wind up with wonky hourglass blocks.

I hit upon the idea of cutting my hourglass blocks from 4-patches, “popping” the center seam open so the intersections would be nice and flat. Then I cut the 4-patches on the diagonal into 2½” squares:

2014-1 RFTS Block 2 4-patch to hourglass back
4-Patch and Hourglass From the Back . . .
2014-1 RFTS Block 2 4-patch to hourglass
. . . and from the Front

That hourglass block has bias edges but each edge is sewn to a straight-of-grain edge so no problem there. I’ll outline the full method if there is interest.

Jennifer Gwyn at Seams Crazy has finished her center medallion and made Block 1, and both are just beautiful! Be sure to take a look at her most recent posts. Sherri Crisp of Knoxville, Tennessee is sewing along with us, and Jennifer has a photo on her blog of Sherri’s center medallion. Simply gorgeous! Another quilter, Jennifer Thacker of Houston, Texas has started Reach for the Stars, too, and we are looking forward to seeing her blocks revealed.

The Feb./March 2014 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter is out now, with directions for Blocks 4, 5, and 6. I understand that Sherri is paper-piecing her RFTS blocks. As I look ahead to Block 5, I think I may give that method a try for part of the block. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Posted in Reach for the Stars sampler quilt, update | 4 Comments

Reach for the Stars: Block 1

It took the better part of a day but I finished Block 1 of Reach for the Stars, a queen-size sampler quilt designed by Terri Krysan of Lakeville, Minnesota:

2014-1 RFTS Block 1
Reach for the Stars, Block 1

 

The editors of Quilter’s Newsletter magazine, in which the directions are currently appearing as part of a seven-part series, have placed the project under the category “Challenging Workbook,” and they’re not kidding. The blocks are more complex than they appear. Just look at how many points and/or seams have to be matched in the block above. Two dozen, if I counted correctly!

Here is Block 1 in its proper orientation on point:

2014-1 RFTS Block 1 on point
Reach for the Stars Block 1, on Point

 

Oh dear. It’s disappearing on my design wall because of the white background. Here’s a look at it on black fabric:

2014-1 RFTS Block 1 on point black background
A better view of Block 1

 

Block 1 is one of 14 surrounding a center medallion. So far I’ve made the center medallion and two blocks:

2014-01-22 01.00.55
Center Medallion flanked by Dawn’s First Two Blocks

 

The smaller blocks are 12″ (17″ on point), and the center medallion is 26″ (37″ on point).

Jennifer at Seams Crazy is also making Reach for the Stars, in an absolutely gorgeous neutral palette of cream and tan and black. She’s currently working on the center medallion, and it is going to be a knockout! I know of a couple of other quilters who are thinking about making this quilt. Wouldn’t it be fun to have our own little community of quilters who are Reaching for the Stars?

 

 

 

Posted in Reach for the Stars sampler quilt, update | 12 Comments

Reach for the Stars: Block 3

2014-1 RFTS dlw Block 3
Reach for the Stars Block 3, 12″ square

 

No, you didn’t miss Blocks 1 and 2. I haven’t made them yet. The block you see above is number 3, one of 14 different blocks that surround a center medallion in a gorgeous quilt, Reach for the Stars, designed by Terri Krysan. Her quilt was featured in the Oct./Nov. 2013 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter . . .

2014-1 RFTS quilt
Terri Krysan’s Quilt, 86½” x 106½”

(Copyright Quilter’s Newsletter. Used with permission. Photo by Melissa Karlin Mahoney.)

. . . and I decided to make it, using fabrics in my stash and a different colorway. The magazine is offering directions in a seven-part series that began with the Oct./Nov. 2013 issue.

Block 3 is in the upper right hand corner in the original quilt. It is set on point, so this is the proper orientation for my Block 3:

2014-1 RFTS dlw Block 3 on point
Reach for the Stars Block 3, on point

 

I have two spectacular Jacobean florals in my fabric mix and will be looking for ways to use them. Perhaps I should challenge myself to incorporate a fussy-cut image into every block.

I made the center medallion block a couple of weeks ago. Since then I’ve added a black strip, the first of two sashings:

2014-1 RFTS medallion with sashing
Medallion with one of two sashing strips

 

The medallion block now measures 26″ square; on point it measures 37″ at the widest point. Once I have a few more blocks made, I’ll decide whether the second set of sashing strips should be aqua or green.

 

 

 

Posted in Reach for the Stars sampler quilt, update | 7 Comments

First Finish of 2014

“First finish of 2014.” Ah, it feels good to say that. May I present Square Dance:

May-2014-Shoot-HR-3
Square Dance, 55½” x 64½”

Just 18 months from conception to completion. Not bad for me! To read about the inspiration for this quilt and how it evolved, see my first post about it and a follow-up.

Square Dance was quilted by Melissa Hoffman, one of many talented longarm quilters in the Portland metropolitan area. Here are a couple of close-ups:

2014-1 Square Dance quilting detail
Quilting Detail

 

2014-1 Square Dance quilting detail 1
Feathers and Filigrees

Don’t you love the way quilting adds texture? The filigree motif in the inner black background was free-motion quilted.

The back of the quilt:

May-2014-Shoot-HR-4
Leftover Blocks on the Back

 

Just for fun, the label is a square in a square:

2014-1 Square Dance label
Final Task: the Label


Square Dance
will hang in the Stitches in Bloom quilt show at the Oregon Garden next week (Jan. 24-26). If you happen to be in the neighborhood of Silverton, Oregon then, I hope you’ll stop by.

 

 

 

Posted in free motion quilting, update | 7 Comments

UFO Busting? Check!

The Spring 2008 issue of Designer Quilts magazine featured a red and white quilt called Checkerboard Square, designed by Alex Anderson using fabrics from her Never Enough Romance line for P&B Textiles. As quilt designs go, it’s pretty basic: 18 squares set on point, surrounded by nine-patches and sashing strips. The fabric line really made her design sing, though. It included a large toile and seven companion fabrics, and it came not just in red but also in black and royal blue colorways.

I decided to make the blue version, and in the fall of 2008 I cut the entire quilt out. And, for some reason I can’t explain, I put the quilt aside. For five years. Last week I decided that this UFO would be the first one to tackle in this fresh New Year.

First I made 48 sets of sashing strips. (No, that’s not quite accurate. I cut the first four sets an inch short and had to make new ones.) Then I made 31 nine-patch units. Then, because I am admittedly obsessive about such things, I arranged the 18 squares on point on my design wall and moved them around until I felt the blooms and vines in the toile design were more or less evenly distributed. Here are my toile squares:

2014-1, 1 BlueWhite focus blocks arranged
Here they are with the sashing strips attached:

2014-1, 2 BlueWhite blocks and sashing strips
After the nine-patch/sashing strips that make up the connector rows were joined, I arranged them on my design wall, filling in the blank spaces you see in the photo above:

2014-1, 3 BlueWhite  rows ready to sew
The angle is a little wonky but now you can see what this quilt is going to look like.

I’m almost half done joining the rows. With the setting triangles attached, it’s starting to look like a real quilt:

2014-1, 5 BlueWhite top in progress
With two borders — a narrow blue one and a larger one made of the toile print — the quilt top will measure about 71″ x 88″.

My New Year is off to a promising start. I hope yours is, too!

 

 

 

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Reaching for the Stars

Reach for the Stars is the name of a beautiful sampler quilt designed by Terri Krysan of Lakeville, Minnesota and quilted by Page Johnson of Rosemount, Minnesota. It was pictured on the cover of the Oct./Nov. 2013 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter magazine:

2014-1, QNM cover of sampler quilt
Cover Quilt: Reach for the Stars
(Copyright Quilter’s Newsletter. Used with permission. Photo by Melissa Karlin Mahoney.)

I remember thinking “how pretty!” when my magazine came in the mail in October but I didn’t give it another thought until reading this post by Jennifer of Seams Crazy. Jennifer really fell hard for this quilt, and that prompted me to take another look. I fell too! Quilter’s Newsletter was starting a seven-part series beginning with the Oct./Nov. issue but I wasn’t ready to take on a new project. For starters, I had plenty of quilts on my to-do list, not to mention various Works-in-Progress (WIPs) and Unfinished Objects (UFOs).

But the idea was planted . . . and it took root. This week it dawned on me that I had the perfect collection of fabric already in my stash. Not the tans and creams featured in Terri Krysan’s quilt. As a matter of fact, I have almost no tans in my stash. What I do have is lots of blues and greens, which go perfectly with the Ainsley line of Northcott fabrics that I bought well over a year ago in a moment I can only describe as fabric lust.

Over the last couple of days I auditioned various fabric combinations and started work on Part 1 of the series, the center medallion, basically a star within a star within a star, with hourglass blocks added to the mix. Here is my medallion block:

2014-1, Medallion block
Center Block, 24½” Square

It’s even more dramatic set on point, as in the pattern:

2014-1, Medallion block on point
On Point, 34½” Across

The block has two sets of sashing strips but I am going to wait till I have a few more blocks made before deciding on my sashing fabrics.

I’m already three blocks behind, as the Dec. 2013/Jan. 2014 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter has been out for weeks and I expect the Feb./March 2014 issue, with directions for the next three blocks, to be in my mailbox any day now. I’m going to take my time, though, making each block when time and inspiration arrive at the same time.

What about you? Is anyone else out there Reaching for the Stars? It might be fun to share our progress and cheer each other on!

 

 

 

Posted in Reach for the Stars sampler quilt, update | 25 Comments