It was a cold winter night and I was yearning to be in the arms of
my man, but fate had taken him away this night. I was alone and short on cheddar.
I had invested my meager teaching salary on a month’s supply of diet coke. I
sat in my rocker contemplating the state of humanity. I began dozing off, and precipitously
a vision of the night sky appeared, filled with millions of stars, unclouded
from the light pollution of the city. It was so clear what I needed to do. I
had the direction and inspiration. I abruptly awoke…. It was time to quilt. The
time of the evening star was upon me but the lateness of the hour could not
hamper my inspiration. I began gathering any material I could get my hands on.
I would use scraps to create my masterpiece. I worked into the early hours of
the morning, fueled by the diet coke, nothing could stop me from finishing my masterpiece.
My work was nearing completion, but wait! I was lacking a fat square and snuggly
backing… with my monetary retaining being in short supply from the aforementioned
stock up of diet coke, what was I to do? It can’t end like this… what was I to
do?
Tune in next week for the dramatic conclusion of “A Quilting
Affair”.
Here are the directions just
in case you have lovely scraps that you want to put to good use.
For center square:
Print Fabric
4 - 4 1/2" squares or 1 - 8 1/2" square (if you have enough fabric)
8 - 4 1/2" triangles (use the easy angle templet, I have used mine a ton and I LOVE it!)
White Fabric
4 - 4 1/2" squares
8 - 4 1/2" triangles
Outside triangles:
Print Fabrics
96 - 2 1/2 triangles
48 - 2 1/2" squares (if you have enough fabric you can cut 12 - 4 1/2" squares)
White Fabric
96 - 2 1/2" triangles
48 - 2 1/2" squares
Border Around Large Star
White Fabric
2 - 1 1/2 x 16 1/2"
Border in between small Stars
White Fabric
4 - 1 1/2 x 8 1/2"
Full length border in between Stars and for 1st border
White Fabric
4 - 1 1/ 2 x 34 1/2"
2 - 1 1/2 x 36 1/2"
Pieced border
Lot of scraps
2 1/2" and then start sewing together to make border
2 - 2 1/2 x 36 1/2"
2 - 2 1/2 x 40 1/2"
Third Border
White Fabric
2 - 2 x 40 1/2"
2 - 2 x 43 1/2"
Fourth Border
Blue Fabric
2 - 2 1/2 x 43 1/2"
2 - 2 1/2 x 47 1/2"
Fifth Border
White Fabric
2 - 3 1/2 x 47 1/2"
2 - 5 1/2 x 52 1/2"
You really need the "Easy Angle" templet for the triangles....the yare so much easier to make using it.
Cut all your pieces first and then chain stitch all the triangles together. Press triangles while right sides are still together to set the seams. Then press open.
* Sew 4 1/2" square to triangle to next triangle to white square
*Sew triangle to colored square to colored square to triangle
*Same as above
*Sew 4 1/2" square to triangle to next triangle to white square
*Sew all four rows together
Do the same thing with all triangles
*Sew 1 1/2 x 16 1/2" border on opposite sides of large star
*Sew two small stars together, sew two more small stars together, sew two more small stars together and finally sew the last two small stars together. (You will have each of the corner stars left that have not been sewn to anything).
*Sew 1 1/2 x 8 1/2" white strips to outside of stars and then sew the single star to them, then you will have two rows with four stars and then two rows with two stars.
*Sew 1 1/2 x 34 1/2" white to strips of four stars
*Sew strips with two stars to border of white on the big star. Then sew on to big star.
*Sew next 1 1/2 x 34 1/2" border on to two opposite sides.
*Sew 1 1/2 x 36 1/2" to other sides.
*Sew pieced border on
*Sew white 2 x 40 1/2" on next to border then 2 x 43 1/2" on to opposite sides
*Sew blue border on.
*Sew 3 1/2 x 47 1/2" on opposite sides and then last border on the opposite sides.
I used polyester batting
I bought 2 1/3 yards flannel for the back and 1/2 yard for the binding
