2/27/16

Strips and Stars

Yes, I meant to say strips, not stripes. I haven't started on the stripes yet. But today, I got all my block borders done for the Stars & Stripes quilt I'm making from bee blocks collected last summer. It turned out so much better than expected.

I had in mind to border all the blocks with a brick red solid left over from the Quilting Snowladies. And so I made one block to see how I liked it.


Nice! The stars are fussy cut from one of my other fabrics.


Only then I realized that I'd miscalculated how many of those strips and stars I was going to need. I was thinking in terms of sashings. In other words, I'd need 20 strips and 20 stars. Only, think again, Genius, because I was doing all four sides of each block. That meant that I needed 48 strips and 48 stars. And, uh-oh, because I didn't have enough red for that. 

That's okay though, because the Quilting Snowladies also left behind a blue solid. I did half the blocks with red strips and half with blue strips. Here's how they look with blue.


My excellent Helper Cat was with me throughout the afternoon, and you can't even imagine how helpful he was.


Except when he wasn't.


When all the blocks were finished, I laid them out like this.


Not bad, eh?

By that time, I was getting kind of tired of sewing. Tomorrow, I'll work on the sashings and cornerstones. I'm going to use the stripes for the sashing and the small star fabric for cornerstones.


When the blocks are sashed all the way around, the quilt should be about 60 x 80 inches. That's probably big enough, and so I'm not planning to put a border on it. I'll use that same small star fabric for my binding.

Also this morning, I got off to a good start on the fifth block for the Hocuspocusville quilt. Right now I'm working my way up the staircase.


And that was my day of sewing. I haven't had a good full day of sewing for several days, and so it was a nice way to spend an otherwise dreary Saturday.

16 comments:

Quilting Babcia said...

I love your fabric choices for this one. Especially that deep brick red tone-on-tone. Great job!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Nice stars!

WoolenSails said...

Wonderful quilt, love americana quilts and hopefully I will get some new ones done this year.

Debbie

SJSM said...

You nailed this one!

Lyndsey said...

Beautiful star blocks and I love the fussy cut stars. This will be another great quilt. We went walking and I got sooo cold. I'd under estimated the difference in temperature out of London and on the top of high ground. It was a lovely walk but it took me ages to warm up and left me feeling slightly unwell so I didn't get any sewing done.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Great fussy cut idea for those and the sashing/corner stones are going to make these starts shine.

Dana Gaffney said...

The quilt looks wonderful, I think I'm glad you had to use the blue since it adds to the look, my eyes are all over the place with it. The corner stars are wonderful too, such a good idea.

The Cozy Quilter said...

I'm sure your cat had the best of intentions! Hope you make it to the top of the stairs today!

SandraC said...

Beautiful quilt! Also, you inspire me to get my own embroidery out!

Deb said...

I have just completed the embroidery for block five, your star blocks are great I love the brightness of the colors.

CathieJ said...

You've been busy. Your star blocks are beautiful. They look wonderful with both the red and blue sashing and I really like those fussy cut stars.

quiltzyx said...

Nice design choice using half red/half blue on your star blocks! It does add that special something. Looking forward to seeing it with the stripey sashing & starry cornerstones.

Kate said...

The Strips and Stars blocks look great. I really like the star corners. Hope you got in a bit more progress on it today.

gibbygoo56 said...

Gorgeous!

Quilter Kathy said...

Enjoy doing the stairs! That's way more fun than actually "doing stairs"!! LOL

Brown Family said...

Do those stairs count on your fitbit? Love the Stars.