Monday, January 10, 2011

Snow Flake Quilt

It seems that I'm on a snowflake theme this year.  I started a quilt that I've been dreaming about making for the last couple of years.  I finally summoned the courage to make it.  It's a feathered star pattern and very intimidating.  The majority of my quilts have been art quilts for walls.  Most of these have been given away to various people.  This one will be for me and my bed.  I know... how weird... a quilt for a bed. 






The reason this pattern is intimidating is because of all the little half square triangles, biased edges and inset seams.  Several years ago I made a practice block and I did such a terrible job I knew that my skills needed some serious improvement before I attempted it.  Over Thanksgiving weekend I decided it was time.  I had recently discovered a secret weapon for accurate piecing and cutting.  Spray Starch.  Yep, that's all it is.  Starch the heck out of the fabric while cutting and piecing.  It did wonders.  The other thing that made these blocks successful is increased patience and discipline.  I didn't rush the piecing and if a seam wasn't perfect, I ripped it out and did it again.  It's amazing how many seams had to be redone.  Each time there was a seam that wasn't perfect I asked myself if I could live with looking at it on my bed.  That usually did it. 


I think I'm going to set the blocks so that I have a lot of white space for quilting.  This is where the blocks are so far.  It's just needing all the white fabric in between all the blocks and a decision on what designs to quilt in the white spaces.  I'm also not sure if there needs to be some additional design elements added.  Maybe some appliqued designs on the corners and center to enhance the quilting design and trapunto?  Not sure.  The quilt hasn't finished speaking to me yet. 

2 comments:

  1. Sorry this has nothing to do with this post, but I was wondering how you like your APQS Ultimate 1? I am thinking about getting one used and want to know if you like it. How long of a longarm is it?
    Thanks,
    Heidi

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  2. Heidi,

    I do love the Ultimate I. It's light weight and easy to run. For the money it's a great machine. Of course if I had an extra $12,000 laying around I would love to have the Millinium. I'm starting to toy with traditional quilting and would love to have a stitch regulator. But it's not worth the extra money to me.

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