Stars and Stripes Guild Challenge--post one

Some doodles

Our guild is hosting a challenge for the quilt show coming in October. The basis of the challenge is to celebrate America's 250th birthday and the 50th quilt show of the guild. I reviewed the official rules: 

1) The challenge entry must include recognizable amounts of red, white, blue, and gold. You can use any amount of the colors, fabrics with multiple colors, solids or prints, multiple fabrics of one or all colors, pretty much anything goes as long as all four colors are included.

Pattern pieces

2) The challenge entry can also use any other colors/fabrics in addition to the red, white, blue and gold.

3) The challenge entry must include stars and stripes - at least one star and at least one set of stripes These elements can be added to the quilt in any way, including but not limited to piecing, applique, embroidery, inking, etc.

4) The challenge entry itself can be of any shape, but the width of the quilt cannot be more than 24 inches. The entry can be any length. There is no minimum size. Entries must be quilted and finished with a hanging sleeve. Three-dimensional entries are allowed as long as the piece can be hung in the standard manner.

Gold fabric

I decided I wanted to play. I drew some thumbnail sketches. I selected a design and drew it on paper. I doodled lines on the design and considered color placement. I decided to string piece the star legs so I made foundation paper patterns. I also made a pattern for setting the star into the background.

Last month, I searched online for gold fabric and bought a quarter yard. After pulling the red strings and the blue strings from my string bag, I was ready to begin the piecing!

Strings at the ready

Goal number five on my April list was to begin my guild challenge. I've almost finished string piecing. This project will be on my monthly list until I finish it. Yet, I plan to keep the project under wraps. Instead, I'll share sneak peaks of my progress.