Easy Does It

Sometimes I like to just piddle around with a project. I don't do any production sewing or string piecing. I just do a block or a row at a time. I like to watch the quilt grow and see how things will come together.

That is what I have decided to do with the quilt I am making for my nephew's birthday. He is interested in antiques and likes greens, blues, purples. He is not into hip and modern. Last week I introduced the quilt that I am making for him. I started with 35 strips for my 16 piece block. It wasn't enough, so I keep cutting and sewing until I had 36 blocks. I decided to reduce the size of the quilt from the book. It appears to have been designed to tuck around the pillows and I doubt this will be used on the bed, but rather tossed on the back of the sofa, ready to wrap up in on a chilly afternoon or evening.

Work in progress.

This weekends task was to begin making the sashings and assembling the quilt one row at a time. I was not in the mood to just made 86 sashes, so I decided to put it together row by row. I could hardly wait to see how the star shaped cornerstones looked. I am a little disappointed.

Looks more like crosses than stars to me.

When I started to piece the sashes I felt the points of the stars where rather small. The pattern said to use a  1 3/4 inch square. I wondered if a 2 inch would have worked better?

Still does not look much like a star to me.

I'm not sure why it is not showing up as well as it does in the pattern. Perhaps I should have used a solid purple?  I think the solution is to not tell anyone that it is a star. Let them think it is an X or what every they like.

As of now I have three rows completed. There are six rows and sashes around the quilt. This is going together fairly easy and I think it was have a old fashion look to go with the family antiques my nephew enjoys.

Here are the first three rows on my "design floor" in my basement sewing area.

I hope to get a row done each night, at the very least have it together before the end of the month. Hopefully when it's quilted those pesky star will be more noticeable. Thanks for checking in.