Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Not My WIP!! 6-Pointed Star

Just what I need is another project!  Currently I have four in progress, so I may as well take on another...what's one more!  I never have this many things going on at once.  This wasn't what I had in mind when at the beginning of the year I said I wanted to try new things!

This current project happens to be my daughter Britt's work in progress. She started it years ago and when she moved back home, it was unceremoniously stashed in the closet. I've pulled it out several times, but never felt the need to take it on.  Until this weekend.  



Welcome to the world of 'Y' seams, partial seams, diamonds and plenty of madness!  I'm taking on something that I haven't really explored.  Many things scare me and partial seams are one of them!  I decided how hard can it be (bravado)?!  And what could go wrong?!

Britt was my quilting teacher.  She and I had many, many hours of cutting, quilting, designing and having amazing mother/daughter time. Over the years she has changed directions, changed passions and I have been given the duty to carry on!!

This quilt has a lot of delicious Anna Maria Horner fabric!  My favorite fabric designer without a doubt.  There is a mix of Garden Party and Good Folks lines.  I was also lucky enough to inherit Britt's collection of Anna Maria Horner fabrics too...win, win!



Before I began I had to make seven more 6 - Point Stars.  I pulled the fabric and got to cutting.  The gold solid will be the connecting pieces.  It's not really gold, more of a tobacco brown, I guess.



The next phase was to mark 1/4" on all the corners.  This will become the starting and stopping points when joining the diamonds.  Very time consuming as well!


...and the fun begins!


I found a couple great tutorials on partial and 'Y' seams before I began this.  With those and a little guidance from my daughter, I didn't hesitate to jump in.

Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts has this one:  'Y' Seams
Faith from Fresh Lemons is great too:  'Y" Seams
and this in depth on at She Can Quilt


It helped me a lot to pin directly in the center of the intersecting lines. That way I was able to see where to start and stop.  



And the finished star.  I wanted so badly to have those perfect 'stars' in the center when finished! There is something about seeing those that make me excited!



This is Britt's star!



Here is mine.  Almost as perfect as hers!


My pile of stars!  Now I'm ready to connect them with the solid fabric diamonds.


The diamonds are cut using a 60 degree ruler.  Each unfinished diamond is 4 1/2".  


Using my new 14" ruler you can see that the stars end up being slightly over 14".  I should mention that I wasn't sure how to sew each piece.  Is the best way to start at the outside or inside?  I did a little of both ways and each worked fine, but is there a right way?



This is where I'm at now.  I completed one with the solid.  I have to say that I am very happy with it!  I almost pieced all the solid pieces on each star and then realized no, no, no!  I'm not doing it like that, but you could. I want the star points to touch, so assembling a lot of hexie stars would not be good!  

I hope to work on this more today, but my mind is thinking ahead!  The edges.  What to do there!  If you have made a 6-pointed star quilt and have any suggestions....by all means share!!!

Wish Me Luck!!

LINKING:

24 comments :

  1. Thanks for tutorial you make it look so easy!

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    1. Doing the star part was pretty easy...the rest is kicking my butt!

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  2. You are dong an awesome job, I just don't have the patience to do Y seams, but admire those who do!

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    1. Thanks Vicki! I'm not sure I do have the patience for these Y seams the more I get in the middle of it! I'm learning!

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  3. Y seams! I run from those. Great job : )

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    1. I maybe should have run from them! They are getting more difficult now that I'm putting it all together!

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  4. Oh wow! Look at you go! I've done y-seams once when I was adding corners to my mum's lone star quilt - I had no idea what I was getting myself into! Probably a good thing otherwise I wouldn't have started it! I think you are going to be the y- seams queen after this project :)

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    1. Thank you Serena! Sometimes jumping in without thinking too much is a good thing!

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  5. Watch out...one more project soon turns into 20....or more!
    I have a problem. LOL

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  6. I have to say that Garden Party is still just about one of my all time favorite fabric collections... it is the one collection that I've made a million things with, but I'm never tired of it.

    I love that little mini star on the back of your block... so cute!

    Crossing fingers for you!

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  7. They look fabulous!! Have you seen Kaye Wood's video on Y-seams? I watched it three times. . . thought "no way, it cannot be that easy" . . . it was - it is pretty amazing actually :) Here's a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10YysHZSK44

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    1. I just watched it!! She makes it look so easy…so easy! It makes me want to do something else to try her method!

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  8. I agree - that fabric is delicious! And the stars are really worth the trouble - they are gorgeous!

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  9. Oh my goodness! Despite looking time consuming they are turning out fabulous and I would get such a thrill out of seeing this little star seams on the back!

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    1. The little stars are the icing on the cake (so to speak!)

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  10. It's beautiful. I'm making a similar quilt but mine is English Paper Piecing.

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    1. I love seeing english paper piecing...never tried it before!

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  11. I prefer partial seams over Y seams, if I have to choose one type (which i usually don't!) Your Y seams look great, and I love the little stars that they make on the back. Bravo to you for tackling this project. From the looks of that colorful pile of finished stars, it will definitely be worth finishing.

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    1. To be honest, I didn't know what I was getting myself into!!

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  12. I have a six-pointed star quilt stuffed into a drawer because I wasn't happy with how it went together. I may take it apart and try again,and sew half hexagons together.

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  13. It's looking great so far! Keep it up!

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