Quilting the Star Patch--post 2 Third Finish 2nd Quarter FAL

Quilting the alternate squares

As usual to begin the quilting process, I quilted in the ditch of all the seams. Cindy Needham calls this process "ESS" as in every stinking seam! I used silk threads from Superior and YLI that coordinated with the fabric. I found that a spool each of a cream, a green, a black and a brown thread worked well. Silk thread disappears into the background which is why I like to use it. I used a cotton 50 weight Superior thread to quilt the straight lines about an inch apart in the legs of the star.

To quilt the alternate cream squares, I used one of my template rulers and made a circular design. I used a 50 weight Aurifl thread to quilt the design. It is a brown thread with green undertones. It took me about six minutes to mark and quilt a full square.

To quilt the printed squares in the center of the star, I quilted lines to repeat the lines that I quilted in the star legs. (It took me about two hours to quilt those lines.)

Ready for binding

I thought about all different sorts of ways to quilt the nine patches. I decided to keep the quilting simple. I quilted a straight line through the center of the "dark" squares. Then I kept looking at the light squares and started pebbling them. After echoing the circular motif, I pebbled the background of those squares as well.

Once I had determined the quilting elements for the various areas, all that was left was to put in the time to quilt! I thought that I would finish the quilting in a couple of weeks.

I had a set back when my arms started going to sleep while I quilted. My neck and my head ached from working in the "quilting" position. I do take breaks and stretch; but, some days, my body just isn't into quilting!

Close up view of the pebbles

I thought that I would have completed this project at the end of April or mid-May at the latest. All those pebbles take time! My body rebelled. Massage, chiropractic treatments helped. Next time, I
contemplate quilting pebbles. . .stop me!!!!!!

I left the corners to quilt after I had machine stitched the binding to the front of the quilt. Lately, I've been working on improving my machine binding technique. On this project, I decided to hand stitch the binding because I wanted to ensure that I kept all the points on the nine patches.

Quilting this project was a labor intensive project. I do like the motif that I stitched. It reminds me of sand dollars that we used to collect after a storm on the beach. The pebbles represent some beaches around the world. Personally, I like sand beaches; but, pebble beaches have a certain beauty too.

Finished back

Our book club read "The Tenth Island," by Diana Marcum. There was a passage in the book where she was enjoying the stars from the beach and she took a long path--seven years, before she returned to The Azores. The nine patches represent her travels and the straight quilted lines represent the few roads on the islands.

At our May book club meeting, our activity was to make a label. We met at Sharon B's home and in a hallway was a mirror that she framed with shells that she collected from the Marshall Islands. I was inspired to draw one of the shells from several angles and incorporate the drawing into the label. I actually used my sketchbook practice!

Label

This project will also be the "sample" to encourage members of the Clark County Quilters Guild to participate in the annual challenge. I'm in charge of the challenge which is to create a project from your stash using two inch squares. I'll save more details about the challenge for a later post. Next September, I'll be posting once a month to encourage participating in the challenge.

If you missed the first post on this project, you can read about it here. I used 10 yards of fabric from my stash in this project. Ten yards of fabric doesn't take up much room!! The gold fabric and many of the cream fabrics originated from my friend Martha's stash. She would have liked this pattern and she might have even made one of these herself!
I have stitched 49 1/2 yards of my goal o stitching 57 1/2 yards from my stash this year. I've eight yards left to stitch to meet my goal!

The cost of materials for this project was about $172. I spent about 72 hours completing this project. This is my third finish for the 2nd quarter. It was  goal number seven on my FAL list.

In May, I trained 29 people in Basic Life Support CPR. I don't have my May embroidery assignment completed yet. Although I finished creating it in the software, Joie, my 790 Bernina, wasn't able to stitch the designs I had created. She needed a spa day for her annual maintenance. Turns out, the gears in the drive that operate the raising and lowering of the pressure foot were stripped. The technician ordered the part. I hope the part arrives in a week. (Meanwhile, Bernie and I will be stitching. Bernie is my first Bernina.)