wonky star quilts

Wonky Stars and Stripes quilt 

The past month I have been finishing two small quilts. Today I completed them both and they are ready to reveal. Wonky stars are a modern version of a traditional 8 pointed star block redesigned to be a little more relaxed than traditional stars. In a wonky star the points of the stars are at random angles willy nilly as it suits the quilter. I enjoyed making these blocks once I understood how.  I made more than I needed for a DC Modern Quilt Guild block raffle. Our theme was navy blue and white with a bold color. I tried different mixes of prints and solids and decided I liked both but not mixed up as much as I like them grouped together. So then I began making blocks for my own small quilt roughly 4 x 5 feet. I couldn't wait two months for the raffle. I made a total of 40 stars for these two quilts and had five more that I entered into the guild's raffle.

finished wonky stars and stripes quilt 

back showing the stripes 

Wonky Stars and Stripes label 

As I worked on the strong solid colors I experimented with some softer prints and found a new color way with a big yardage of pink plaid fabric my friend and former neighbor Kiley Bednar gifted last summer. It's a salmon pink plaid with little lines of pale blue, lavender, green and white, very soft and more feminine than the high contrast solid navy blue and white quilt. For the pink star quilt I saved up some wool batting to use and decided to hand quilt using a star and diamond pattern.

Hand embroidered label detailing wool and cotton content

Wonky Pink Stars quilt 5 x 4 feet

the back shows two stripes and the hand quilting pattern of stars and diamonds. 

Thanks to former guild president, Katie Blakesley who selected this block and the raffle color theme. She gave us a guide to colors and a link to a tutorial that made it all very easy and fun. Her new book is coming out next month and we are all looking forward to getting copies of our own. She presented her new book about revisiting traditional quilts in a modern way and she spent two years working and writing and quilting with two co-authors. Her presentation in late October to the guild about writing her book on quilting was very interesting and clearly not as easy as one would like to day dream it should be.