Add a Border block quilt finished

A few years ago I joined an Internet group of quilters who swap small blocks and add borders to each then send them off to others to add more rounds until a 6 inch block becomes 24 inches then it is given to the first to lay claim to the block. A nice fellow in Kentucky hosts the block swap sending and resending the blocks from one quilter in the Flickr.com group to the next. Here is a link if you want to see some of the work or join in the fun:  AddABorderBlockSwap on flickr.com 

AFter a while in the group I never got to select a finished block so a second option was to keep one you liked and replace it. I chose this block after adding a round to it because I fell in love with the orange/magenta striped background fabric and the hexagon hand pieced block on it that looked like a toy block. It was made by Ed Hart who goes by Cattail in the group. I chose it as my block to keep and pinned it to my design wall to ponder how to build it into a queen size quilt top of my own improvising from this beginning. 

Not long after deciding to keep this block I put it away because I had so many quilt projects already underway and this project was not clearly worked out in my head.

The following year once all my Log Cabin quilts were completed I tried again. This first block built up to about 24 inches square and I realized that to keep going, like some other quilters do making it all a giant medallion, was going to be really difficult to keep my quilt squared. The wobble was starting to distort the square shape after adding only three more rounds! 

Next idea was to make more blocks like this improvising my way along with my core design element taken from the original block, the three diamond hexagon on a bright background that looks like a three dimensional toy block sitting in a field.

Next step was to make some three inch diamond English Paper Pieces and try to match the fabric of the original block with purple, white and green from my stash. It was fun making them up and hand stitching them together a couple at a time. 

The second block was different because the background was different and so it went on and on with each new block. Once I had four I decided I was going to organize them by doing a big nine patch design for the overall quilt pattern. 

Second block used a tartan shirt fabric given to me by Melinda Newton as my background

 The colors shifted to the purple and aqua range and I wanted to keep the magenta, red and oranges in the quilt so I chose another tartan in red and dark blue as the third block's backgrounder.

Third block 

4th block got a different colored hexagon in the center using a warm pink with magenta and white then the  flower background with oranges purples and magenta pinks. 

In this 4th block I was ready to take a step aside from the aqua purple theme and move back to the pink purple orange end of the range of colors. I am not sure why but it felt right when I headed in this direction looking at all four it needed this brightness. 

Three of the 3 inch central hexagons trying a new orange magenta color theme in the center hexagon. 

Then I wanted to throw a twist in and added a block with a diamond setting of the central hexagon. It was fun and a little tricky to add triangle blocks split in two...

I blogged earlier about messing this one up at our guild sewing day. I  cut that orange edged block in half the wrong way first thing and had to start it all over when I got home but that is a good example of how much thought and concentration is required to get the results you want in quilt top piecing.  This is how they looked before I cut them in half to create a triangle to add to the diamond block center. 

The various blocks all improvised pieces totaled nine which took a while to even up with extra rounds of thinner and thicker bands. In the final judgement I chose to add some solid magenta as sashing to draw all these unmatched blocks together to make a top to fit my queen sized sleigh bed. 

I was influenced by the hand work movement to make up some one inch English paper pieced tumbling blocks to include as a sort of button decoration on the intersections of the sashing. I wanted to add some scale to the theme small and large. 

one inch and three inch English Paper Pieced blocks in the quilt side by side

They were so small that I had a struggle to figure out how to get them on the intersections of the sashing and decided that applique was my best bet once the whole was hand quilted. I chose # 8 pearl cotton in contrasting or matching colors to detail the big blocks and surround them on the sashing leaving room for these small tumbling blocks at the intersections. 

Hand quilting with big stitch purple pearl cotton # 8

quilt top before the quilting began laid on my bed with four tiny one inch tumbling blocks at intersections 

detail of finish 

detail of finish hanging 

detail of central block finished 

Finished hanging by my bed (see the foot board lower left blocks the full view)

Hanging Tumbling block quilt improvisation based on the original "Add a Border" block from Ed "Cattail" of the block swap group. 

I wanted to thank Ed Hart for the inspiration and Dustin Cecil for sending me this block that has kept me busy for the last couple years. I regret that my home is kind of small and tight so the finished quilt shots are cramped but maybe next weekend when I show it at the Washington DC Modern Quilt Guild meeting I can get a better photo to add later. 

I would love to hear your comments and questions on my blog posts about quilting or any other topic I cover. Be aware if you do comment I have this blog set  for all comments to be approved by me before they will appear on the site. It might take a day or two to get to them and post them thanks for your patience.  

Rose Star quilt finished, at last.

Rose Star quilt features red binding, white backing and two red triangle boarders. 88 x 87 inches with angled corners. 

It took 8 months to complete the top using the nineteenth century hand sewing technique called English paper piecing. The final quilt top required 54 blocks and unknown number background white hexagons with wings to fill in between the colors. Once the top was completed, next came the gruesome two day work of hand basting together three layers of fibers (pieced top, cotton batting, and backing fabric) on hands and knees.  I sore after that work out in places I don't normally get sore.  Finally 10 more months hand quilting the layers together and at last binding all the edges. I began in Jan. 2012 and I am finishing in August 2013. Fast for an all hand made quilt.

Rose Star embroidered label on the back and corner detail 

close up of my label 

two sides have long red triangles running to finish the edges. 

folded view

Special Thanks to Jessica blogging at Life Under Quilts who pointed me to Clare's blog: Selfsewn, tutorial, and Flickr. group: RoseStar Block Party for the inspiration and instructions how to do this project that was so much fun I couldn't stop at six block and went on toe make many more. Once I began English paper piecing it was like eating candy I kept wanting to make more so I determined I had to make a bed sized quilt. I also thank my Mom for all her support and encouragement. Each new block was an excellent adventure. It was thrilling anew each time I chose new fabric fat quarters or old shirts or remnants to combine in a number of ways for colored stars. Then the fun kept coming when I began combining the rose stars on my design wall. It was a wonder to lay away afternoons and nights dreaming and rearranging their order. Keith and many friends, who saw my blocks as they came together, were so enthusiastic about the results it drove me right through to the finish. Thank you all for your encouragement and supporting comments. Now who wants to see it up close and personal?

Further adventures in quilting by the bay

This past week at the Ruppert's Bay retreat I got some big work completed. The first on my list of "things to do" was the space hungry basting of the three parts in a quilt that has to be spread out flat to accomplish, namely basting the three layers together before they can be quilted. The hand pieced top of 54 Rose-Stars was the quilt top that was ready to do this to and I got right to work. Backing laid out and stretched with painter's tape on a hard wood floor (painted red) layered with batting and finally the color filled top fit just right in the room... with a little room to walk around it on all sides. Last year I used this room to make my first machine pieced quilt. I didn't know last year to tape the bottom layer down while working which this year made the whole process much more accurate and easy. It was still hard labor to crawl on the floor stitching in large basting stitches with a long needle and thimble to push it through the three layers and back up. My figures were sore my knees and eventually my hip from laying on my bony side... But in less than 24 hours it was done folded and set aside to make way for the next project.

Rose-Star quilt basted fully stretched out on the floor of the red house's studio room 

back side of the Rose-Star Quilt is all white printed muslin. Close inspection of the photo shows lots of long dark blue threads running in a star burst from the center.

dark blue pieces for white panels stacked waiting to be appliqued 

 The Dresden Plate quilt a tribute to my great grandmother's of the same design is next. I have 30 blocks with hand stitched central circles appliqued on top of the machine pieced and appliqued plates in blue and white with opposite backgrounds. I also had seven more blocks near complete thinking I might do a small version to experiment with the machine quilting techniques I haven't tried yet with any success.

full sized diamond layout of the Dresden Plate pieces 

Diamond layout for smaller quilt top

The new environment was stimulating and having extra room to spread out and only these two projects on my plate made a new idea pop up. Diamonds? What if I turned the blocks to the side and got a diamond pattern instead of checker board style. It looked great but then I needed half blocks to fill out a rectangle and that would be a step back on this big quilt so I decided to play with the smaller version using the diamond layout and focus on getting the original checkerboard squares laid out and sewn together. It turned out a little bigger than I expected but it fell together so well I am not complaining about extra. I spent 8 months sewing the Rose-Star pieces so I never expected to achieve in one month the machine piecing of the Blue and white project with extra blocks to spare and the green and white fence quilt still on the back burner but getting close to next... The slow hand quilting of Rose-Star will put it all back in perspective.

Queen size Dresden Plate Top seen from my back porch window laid out in the garden

Thirty 18" inch squares appliqued with plates and center circles

Dresden Plate Top spread on the lawn. 

After some time reading in a book on Quilting I discovered a pattern I wanted to try. This is called Seminole after the Indian tribe of Florida who developed it years ago  using only a hand cranked sewing machine. It's a cool strip technique that uses stripes of three colors cut and re-sewn on diagonals in bands. The result of my first experiment is a very neat row of diamonds surrounded by contrasting color and long solid stripes... First I thought I would add some into the Dresden plate blue and white quilt but since it is so large, I think not. The better solution is to make another quilt and get really familiar with this technique. The rotary cutter, ruler and hot iron with lots of starch make this possible and fairly quick work.

first length of Seminole piecing in blues

closer look at detail of the Seminole strip piecing

 It is very exciting to have these two projects so much closer to complete and then a new technique well underway and understood. All that thanks to the time and space provided by our great friends the Rupperts of Fairhaven Cliffs, Md. I am looking forward to playing with all this and more in the coming months as I figure out the next steps. New quilting friends at the DC Modern Quilting Guild gave me a tip to buy a "walking foot attachment" for my machine. I found one on a very sweet web page today devoted entirely to my vintage featherweight Singer sewing machine. It seems from further reading there that the sales man was right it's a highly sought after machine! This link will take you back to the 1930s sewing shop for a little time travel. I ordered the walking foot and expect to have it in a week or two to try machine quilting again using the right foot to keep things smooth under the needle of the crawling foot.

some more quilt pictures

detail of rose star quilt on the felt wall

 Here are a few more shots of the rose star quilt english paper pieced project hanging up.

most of the rose star quilt top on the felt wall with some red fabric under the upper right showing the finish of zig zag edge. 

I am still thinking about how to finish off the edges. two sides are straight and two sides are zig zag edges currently. I could add some triangles of white or a color to make the zig zag straight. Or I am thinking about adding diamonds of color to the zig zag edge for a colorful edge. But then what to do with the straight edges? I am not sure how I want to end this hand stitching and piecing. Designing is fun but on some days no clear answers present themselves. Ideas? Comments welcome. 

back side of a rose star with paper pieces basted in place

bag of paper pieces after I pulled them out sitting on the 6 yards of white muslin print for the backing

ball of multi colored basting threads pulled out of the finished section

winged white hexagons ready to put between the colored rose stars. 

Quilting and flowers

showing the zig zag edge over the side of sleigh bed

showing the zig zag edge on the blue pillows at the top of the bed

My English paper pieced rose star quilt is making good progress this week I finally got the last roses connected with the winged hexagon bits that go between and attached them all together to arrive at a finished size of about 86x84 inches. I went out to visit mom and see about getting it put with a backing and batting and getting it professionally basted together so I can hand quilt it more easily. I was not quoted a very good price for that work so I most likely will do it myself. As I have been working I decided to give it a decorative edge of points on the two sides that works out to be part of the design. You can see one edge is completed and the other side is soon to be done to match. Top and bottom or sides will be straight with maybe a border of a few inches added to give it more length for tucking and turning to keep dirty hands off the important parts. It was really difficult to choose but my conservative nature won in the shop when I was choosing the backing. I decided to back it with the same printed white muslin fabric that is between the colorful rose stars. I almost regret not being bolder and going with a red and white Jacobean line print I found but it was what my gut was telling me to do at the moment, use the white... it said. I took time to photograph some of the threads that were pulled out from a section as I removed the basting stitches used to hold the paper parts in place while assembling all the pieces. What a nest of thread it is and it's only about a third of the quilt that these came from to make this pile of threads which balled up is as big as both of my fists side by side.

pile of basting threads from the paper pieces of a third of the quilt after removing them and the paper. 

Now I am home getting ready to finish up the last of the zig zag edge on the other side of the Rose Star quilt. It has been a long haul from Jan. 15th when I began making rose stars in the challenge. It was a small block quilt group on Flickr.com set up with a simple tutorial by Clare who goes by the Nome De Plume Selfsewn. She is the blogger who started the group for us to share photos in the "Rose-Star block party" on Flickr. I am very happy that I kept going making rose stars beyond the challenge number of six making 54 which is just large enough to fit our queen sized sleigh bed top. It's going to be fun finishing it off over the remaining months of this year. At least I hope it won't take much longer than a year to complete the quilt even with quilting by hand. It could be that I need two years to finish but I hope not. 

quilt with zig zag at top and bottom on the bed 

quilt top with straight top and bottom.

The next thing we did was stop at the Merrifield Garden Center in Gainesville to see what we could find. I was hoping to find a dark purple 'Nicky' summer phlox but they didn't have a single one. Some others that were pretty but not that dark and rich in color. Mom got excited about some of the day-lilies that were still in bloom this late in the summer. She went out and picked one called Vanilla Fluff which is a big 6 inch doubled flower that smells of vanilla and the one she selected had three flowers open. So we brought it home and I planted it strait away. Another flowering plant in the green house caught her eye from half way across the nursery and we went to see it. Crossandra's orange flowers were pretty spectacular so she said she would like one of these to go home too. We packed it up and went back to Manassas. I sketched it at her recommendation this morning before I came home to DC.

Vanilla Fluff big day lily blooms

Vanilla Fluff daylilies

crossandra in the rose pot Manassas 

sketch of crossandra