Arranging My Stars

So I finally picked fabric for the background and here I am arranging the blocks for my quilt top (don't mind my old lady house shoes!). This blue mop thing is a swiffer. Although I vacuum each day, wooden floors somehow always create dust tumbleweeds that are irresistibly attracted to my fabric projects, so before I lay down any fabrics, the swiffer comes out!

This quilt top is made from my pattern Stash Busting Stars. Well, to be precise, the blocks are from that pattern. I'm actually changing things around and adding sashing between the blocks and an extra border to get the size I want rather than make more stars, so mine is a variation.

It's a few years old now since I created the pattern and the way I made these blocks was that I simply added a round randomly from stashed fabric over about 14 months. And as I was making the stars, I really was stash busting scraps left over from various projects and this means that I didn't pay enough attention to the fabric pairing. I really don't know why this didn't occur to me as I was making it up! I think I was just happy to be making a scrappy quilt to have about the house, but now that I'm getting them all lined up, I wish I'd coordinated them more!

Finally after endless changes, I settled on this arrangement. And I will be adding sashing between the blocks and a border. I love that this throw around quilt is made up of project scraps for the stars and the background and border are actual stash fabrics. I hate parting with fabric, so it's nice to actually use it up.

Here's a close up of the background fabric I chose, I think it grounds all the scrappy blocks perfectly. It's called Count Your Blessings by Kathy Schmitz LLC for Moda #6083 and it's a stash bundle, I have no idea how old it is, probably 10 years or so.

This gorgeous pink trumpet flower fabric is by Beth Bruske for David Textiles and it's over 10 years old, maybe even 13 or 14. I haven't met a Beth Bruske fabric I didn't like, honestly they are all so gorgeous. Nowadays, I can't find any anywhere so I assume she has stopped designing, which is a shame. I find there's something so old world and evocative about her prints that are always charming and work beautifully in piecing, fussy cutting and applique. In fact, I love this print so much, I also purchased it in a blue-ish shade which you can see below used in the border. Again, I'll be using her pink trumpet flowers in my border for the new quilt too. I think the reason I keep using her fabrics primarily in borders is because I don't like cutting them up!

This is one of the first quilts I made. It's over 15 years old. Back then I was stenciling on all my quilts, so even a pieced quilt like this got the painted block treatment!

When I look back on my quilts, I can see a progression in style and taste. But you know what? I still love them, including this one. I can't actually remember what I called this quilt (isn't that terrible?!). It has a label but I stuck it at the top (a beginner's mistake) where the hanging rod is so I can't actually read it. Whatever I called it, it's made an appearance in my house for the first time in 10 years when I did my yearly Changing of the Quilts back in February. I thought it was about time it got some love.

The domestic machine quilting is gorgeous too. I'm taken aback at home much work I put into this quilt, even the back is fully stencilled. My Stash Busting Stars quilt is decidedly more relaxed and I love that I'm going to have some of these in the house as my current quilts are much more art and hanging quilts. It's nice to have some variety.

Now I have my blocks arranged, I am putting them aside for when I feel like a day's easy sewing to get the top together. It feels so good to have a quilt nearly done. It's all thanks to my WOW routine on Wednesdays, otherwise I would never have spent time working on a stash busting top. I feel very resourceful. Now it's time to get back to my BOMs...