Seeing Stars

Lest I get so many UFOs done that I might run out, I have started yet another project. Geesh. I know. The last thing I ought to be doing is starting something new. Maybe I am incurable in the "let's start a project" department. Perhaps I will never fully grasp the "finish what you start" mentality.

Oh well.

I love following Barbara Brackman's blog called Material Culture. She has several claims to fame in the quilting world--quilter, fabric designer, and quilt historian are a few. She often hosts quilt-alongs with some historic purpose in mind. Because her fabrics are reproduction fabrics representing various time periods, she is currently hosting a quilt-along called Stars in a Time Warp. The gist is that she is encouraging quilters to make 6" Sawtooth Stars in a mish-mash of reproductions, thus resulting in a time warp of historic designs. You can click here to read the full details; my brief summary leaves a lot out, I'm sure.

Now I promised myself I wouldn't join a quilt-along this year; I have two from last year that still aren't finished. But what would be wrong with just making a bunch of stars? I have already made a bunch of 9-patches and a bunch of 16-patches. I wouldn't have to dig very deep to find a stash of churn dash blocks. So I'm not really doing a quilt-along; I am just making a bunch of stars.

Justifying.

Another blog I follow rather faithfully is by Nicole called Sister's Choice Quilts. Nicole caught the star-making bug from Barbara Brackman and has made lots of them. Look at the picture of her stars in this post she wrote about them.  If I can get her permission, I will grab her picture and post it here because it reminded me of a quilt I have wanted to make for a long, long time. I saw it pictured in an old issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine  It is from 2001, so I had to go digging. Have a look.

 Glossy magazine pages always have a shiny spot, regardless of the lighting, but I think you can still get a pretty good idea of how similar this picture is to the blocks Nicole had on her design wall. Definitely some differences in how the stars are made, but the resulting stars are surprisingly similar.

Well, let me just go ahead and show you the two I've made. Yes, I will likely make more. I seem to be losing the points of my flying geese units, so I need to figure out where I'm messing up - either I'm cutting inaccurately or my quarter-inch seam is unreliable. I expect to get this worked out by making more Sawtooth Stars.

Further justifying the start of a new endeavor and to reiterate: I am not doing a quilt-along. Rather, I am adding to my list of quilts to make in 2015 one that has been on my radar since 2001.*wink*

Happy Quilting, Friends!