Monday, April 29, 2019

Pasque Star Flimsy

It is done! This is the April challenge for Island Batik, who supplied the fabric, and for AccuQuilt, who supplied the dies and cutting machine.

This was a bit of an ornery quilt. I ripped and re-sewed a lot more than I usually do. I think the orientation of the HSTs churned my menopausal melon into a bit of a watermelon slushy. The quilt also had a bit of an independent streak, and didn't want to stay within the original plan. However, I am not above admitting when the quilt was right and my original design was not, so "Come on in" and see all her triangles and squares oriented correctly.



This was my original design, if you recall, #5/30 in the 30 Quilt Designs Challenge that is still going on (and you can still hop on board, just shoot me an email with your first design):

and here is the finished flimsy:
For some reason I thought I had two symmetrical blocks in this block. Nope. They are identical...


just coloured differently, and rotated at 90° turns across the quilt. I couldn't wrap my head around that for most of the quilt construction! Outside of four grey large triangles and the large yellow ones, every piece, even the 2 1/2" border strips, was cut with the Accuquilt Go! cutter and dies. The only reason the yellow ones are not cut and pieced is because I only had one 5" strip of that fabric, so I had to cut it with the least amount of piecing possible. Challenges right?

When it came to adding the border, I thought (or rather the quilt nudged me) to say it would add a little pizzazz and punch up the yellow to have another HST in each corner of the white border. So, at the design wall, I placed two extra HSTs I had in two of the corners and thought, uh huh! (Don't ask me why I had extra of some triangles, not enough of many others, just another example of the smack myself in the forehead that went on while making this quilt.) Then, since the quilt had had its way there, it suggested perhaps it may be interesting to let some of the quilt centre flow into that same white border by extending the pink square in a square. This would accentuate the cross effect through the centre of the quilt. Tried a couple of extra pink and a few extra grey HSTs (see below why I had four extra of those) on the design wall to see.... Oh yes. So, again, I listened to the quilt and then put on the final grey border in order to bring it up to the minimum size for the challenge, 40".

Those extra grey HSTs: do you notice another subtle difference between the original design and the flimsy? Well! When I looked at the EQ design that I'd inserted here for the post, I noticed something. Wait a minute.... The centre square on my EQ design is grey! In fabric it's white! Shoot! And I'd already started quilting... I don't think I should call this baby quilt 'Terrible Twos' but I'm tempted!

So quilting has started. With a few bumps while I try to remember where I've stashed my quilting supplies on two floors and some in the garage during renovations....
  • I pulled out some Hobbs Batting (supplied to us ambassadors, and I know exactly where I put it)
  • I'm quilting on my Bernina because I can't find the shorter leaders for Avril right now, but I am pretty sure which Rubbermaid tub they are in...in the garage.... 
  • found -yay!- my basting spray, a little dab'll do ya...good thing as I don't have much left.
Last night we watched another episode of Jann, so now just have the season finale to watch, and afterwards I started stitching in the ditch. It's so much fun and I love the effect on the back, which you will have to come back for. Dare I say I hope it will be finished quilting today, knowing the uncompliant nature of this pretty little quilt?!
I love going back to my Bernina from time to time on smaller quilts. She is such a smooth operator (cue the song). And the original quilt plan is starting to take a backseat to some emerging ideas. But of course.

I've decided to write the tutorial for Pasque Star and offer it free here on the blog. Be sure to check back for the quilted quilt in a day or two, and the tutorial will be forthcoming shortly thereafter!


21 comments:

  1. So pretty! And isn't it nice when the quilt lets you know what it needs.

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  2. Oh, I'm loving seeing this pattern come to life! The colors are so fresh and fun. Great job, Sandra!! Looking forward to the tutorial!

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  3. I love how stitching in the ditch stabilizes the quilt and also allows the design to transfer to the back. I think the additions in the border are fantastic and I look forward to seeing how the quilting evolves for you, too.

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  4. Very nice. Love the pink and yellow together. Looking forward to the tutorial. It snowed again yesterday but didn’t stay. Mother Nature just doesn’t want us to have spring.

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  5. How cool is that! Same block, different colors. Love the pattern and looking forward to the tutorial. I found it similar to your Beothuk star where you play the same trick - turn the blocks around to make a star.

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  6. It looks great!! Love those colours together in a quilt.

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  7. Very nice quilt! I love when a quilt talks to me!!!

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  8. Dang those talking quilts, they talk to loudly sometimes and others it's just a whisper. I like the way this one talked to you. SID is one of the first things I do when quilting, helps stabilize and the layers don't shift.

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  9. Sometimes those quilts that give us grief allow us to work out the other things that are bugging us. Whomever invented the seam ripper gets my kudos. This is a lovely little quilt and will be so beautiful when you are done quilting it. I look forward to seeing, front, back, binding at the end of the session. And I look forward to the pattern, which I will be cutting by hand!!

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  10. Great finish. There must have been something in the air this month because I made fast friends again with my seam ripper.

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  11. Looks great, and those colours, just the right amount of each one to balance it all. Pity it was such a nightmare, but a great finish.

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  12. It's a gorgeous quilt - the colours really work well together. In spite of the heartache (or headache from all that forehead hitting) it has turned out well. Hope the quilting is Trouble Free!!!

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  13. Love how it turned out in actuality. Well done. Good idea to listen to the quilt itself.

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  14. Such a pretty quilt! Thanks for making a tutorial available as well!

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  15. There was a little girl
    With a pretty little curl
    Right in the middle of her forehead
    When she was good
    She was very very good
    And when she was bad she was horrid!

    This is a pretty little quilt with a white square in the middle of its forehead! Sounds like it was only horrid a couple of times, though, and mostly very very good :)

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  16. This turned out so cute - love the colors and a new pattern using accuquilt - win-win all around (even if you became best friends with your seam ripper!)

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  17. Tackling the orneriness paid off just fine! Very pretty baby quilt.

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  18. A great finish even if it did talk back to you now and then!

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  19. How strange the struggle is sometimes! I love this one and it does have echoes of Beothuk (which I will cut later today). Sometimes smaller quilts on smaller machines is a good match and it seems to be working just fine. I can wait to see your exquisite quilting on this.

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  20. Oops...I'm reading backwards. I like the grey border.

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  21. Very pretty! Love the color palette you picked for this project. It's perfect for spring.

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