First Light Designs

My good friend Colleen Coffman recently finished the center medallion of her Reach for the Stars sampler quilt, and it’s a showstopper! Take a look:

Instructions for this queen-size quilt, designed by Terry Krysan, are being published in a seven-part series by Quilter’s Newsletter magazine.

Colleen’s focus fabrics are from the Morris Apprentice line by Barbara Brackman for Moda fabrics. Her beautiful fussy-cut corners featuring the artichoke motif are even more dramatic when the block is set on point, as it will be in the finished quilt:

Colleen, you are off to a great start!

As Yogi Berra would say, “It’s deja vu all over again.” Block 9 of Reach for the Stars is finished, but not without a last minute change — just like Block 8, which I wrote about in my last post. I’ve been working on this sampler quilt since last fall, when Quilter’s Newsletter began a seven-part series with the Oct./Nov. 2013 issue.

As soon as I saw the original Block 9 (shown below) I knew I would be tweaking it a bit.

I liked the fussy-cut corners and center nine-patch but the asymmetry of the block bothered me. Since the quilt features stars in its center medallion and among its 14 blocks, I decided to include a star in this block.

Here is my revised Block 9 up on the design wall, with the nine units ready to sew together:

I wasn’t quite ready to move the units to my sewing machine, however. There was something about that block I wasn’t loving. On a hunch I cut a little square of black fabric and stuck it the middle of the center nine-patch. I liked the effect so much that I remade the nine-patch. Then I sewed the units together.

Now take a look at my block:

It needed that, yes?

And here it is on point, as it will be in the finished quilt:

An overview of my progress so far:

Next up: sashing strips around each block and a second sashing strip around the center medallion. I should be able to get that done before the next issue of Quilter’s Newsletter arrives with information on Blocks 10, 11, and 12.

I’m making headway (albeit slowly) on my version of Reach for the Stars, the queen-size sampler quilt featured in Quilter’s Newsletter magazine. Directions for the quilt, which contains a center medallion and 14 blocks, are unfolding over the course of seven issues.

If you’ve been following my progress you’ve already seen my center medallion flanked by my first seven blocks:

This morning I was ready to sew the segments of Block 8 together. There they were, up on my design wall:

I had followed designer Terry Krysan’s original block design shown here:

My thought was that the four rectangles on the outside of the block would look good made from one of my two focus fabrics, the one that features a border stripe. But the more I looked at my block components, the more I thought something wasn’t quite right. Hmmm. How would it look if I extended the stripe to the outside edges of the white triangles? I folded a piece of the striped fabric across the top part of the block . . .

. . . and I liked what I saw. I’m so glad I made the decision to make new flying geese units before I sewed the block together.

Now Block 8 is done:

Here it is on point, as it will be in the finished quilt:

I really like the way the striped fabric looks on the diagonal. Sometimes a quilt just tells you what it wants!

With the completion of Block 7, I am halfway through my sampler quilt Reach for the Stars, featured in a seven-part series in Quilter’s Newsletter magazine. Here is my Block 7:

Here it is on point, as it will be in the finished quilt:

I opted not to put appliqué circles in the centers of my black squares, as called for in the original design. Instead I inserted a fussy cut image in the center square, making a square in a square.

And now for a full progress report: the first seven (of what will be 14) blocks surrounding my center medallion:

The center medallion will have a strip of blue sashing next to the black that’s already there, and the individual blocks will have black or green sashing, depending on their final placement in the quilt. The sashing will greatly enhance the finished look of the quilt, as you can see by looking at Terry Krysan’s original quilt:

If you take a close look at the picture above, you’ll see that many of the blocks contain half-square triangles or square-in-a-square components. I used to spend a lot of time and effort marking sewing lines on my fabric pieces to make units like these. Not any more! In my next post, I’ll show you a little sewing aid I made out of template plastic that eliminates the need to mark sewing lines on my fabric pieces, speeding up block construction considerably. (You would think I’d get my blocks done faster but I still spend way too much time auditioning fabrics — and then second-guessing my choices. Time to start that process now for Block 8!)

Speaking of Block 8, Jennifer Gwyn of seamscrazyquilts.com has already finished hers (as well as her Block 7). Check out her site to see pictures of her lovely work in progress.

Thanks for stopping by!

More Reach for the Stars Show and Tell, this time from Jennifer Varney of Hudson, New Hampshire. Reach for the Stars is a queen-size sampler quilt with directions coming in seven consecutive issues of Quilter’s Newsletter magazine. Designed by Terri Krysan, the quilt features a center medallion and 14 blocks, all set on point.

Jennifer V (one of four Jennifers I know of currently making this quilt) has chosen to arrange her blocks in straight sets because she wants a smaller quilt with fewer blocks. You can see her center medallion and first five blocks in this post from March, which also shows the original quilt made by Terri Krysan.

Jennifer decided to remake Block 5, not because of a cutting error that would have been cleverly disguised with the sashing that goes around the block but because she wasn’t happy with one of her fabric choices. Here is her new Block 5:

Love that touch of sparkle from the metallics!

And here are her two latest blocks:

Terri Krysan’s design for Block 7 includes five fussy-cut circles appliquéd in the 3″ squares that make up the centers of the five stars. Jennifer V has opted not to add the circles and I may not either. There’s already a lot going on in this block. I’ll decide when I get to that point.

By the way, we have two new official converts to Reach for the Stars! My friend Colleen is almost done with her center medallion (her feature fabrics are from the Morris Apprentice line by Barbara Brackman for Moda) and our mutual friend Linda is jumping on board with Barbara Brackman’s latest line of Arts and Crafts-inspired fabric, Morris Modernized, featuring the designs of C.F.A. Voysey, the “informal successor” to William Morris. Rest assured I will post pictures when Colleen’s and Linda’s blocks are ready to be revealed!

In the meantime, if my sewing plans for this weekend are realized, I’ll be ready to reveal my own Block 7 very soon.

Oh boy! I get to show you two new blocks in Sherri Crisp’s version of Reach for the Stars, the series sampler quilt unfolding in consecutive issues of Quilter’s Newsletter magazine. Sherri, who’s from Knoxville, Tennessee, is one of a small but growing group of quilters whose progress is being charted here and on Jennifer Gwyn’s website/blog, seamscrazyquilts.com.

First, behold Sherri’s  Block 5 . . .

. . . and now look at it on point, as it will be in her finished quilt:

Don’t you love the pinwheel effect?

Here is Block 6 as a square . . .

. . . and here it is on point:

And here are all of Sherri’s blocks to date in position around the center medallion:

Simply spectacular, Sherri!