Winter definitely arrived this past week in central PA with temps dipping into the low 20’s with howling winds. I used the word “blusterly” with my grand daughter the other day as no other word did justice to all the cold blowing going on.
This kind of weather leads me to warmer colors for art quilt creating. I was looking through some older designs of mine and found the Wonky Star/Sun quilt design. It was just the ticket for this gray cold weather week.
I don’t use patterns nor do I keep track of how to create my different designs. My first mission with this star/sun was to figure out how I pieced it! This design has four sections with 5-6 rays each of different length and different colors. The design also used 5-6 different pastel/light colors fabrics between the rays. Once I collected the appropriate fabrics it didn’t take long to cut the pieces and get ready to piece the sections.
The center of the quilt is also pieced in four sections which was the easiest part of this design.
I pieced each quadrant individually and then pieced them to their corresponding quadrant from the middle circular sectio
n. The quadrant edges were squared off and the exterior dark green strips were added.
The actual free motion quilting was a very long endeavor! I quilted the rayes and the center circle part. Then the pastel/lighter colored sections between the rays were quilted in a variety of free motion designs which continued into the dark green border/background. I love the way light colored thread is barely visible on the pastel pieces and then quite vibrant on the dark green.
The quilt ended up being 31″ W x 29″H. I love the warm feelings these colors provide!
Absolutely stunning! Wish I could perch on your shoulder to observe your free motion quilting! I have always hand quilted my small quilting projects (table runners, wall quilts) but would love to learn how to do free motion quilting. May I ask what kind of thread you use?
I use Isacord. I use that thread for everything including piecing. At an early class I took at my local Bernina store the trainer suggested this so that’s what I do.
I taught myself free motion quilting by just practicing on scraps about 15-30 minutes a few times a weeek for many months. I watch YouTube videos and found some websites with lots of different designs and videos. It is all about practicing and getting comfortable with consistency in fabric movement. Plus I made up my own designs with a focus on wonky and irregular so it was never about doing perfect shapes. All of my designs and quilts are a bit wonky. They are fun to make and make you smile.