Crumb Star Quilt Is Finally Done!

 

At long last, my Crumb Stars quilt is finally done!

I used the pattern August Stars from JayBird Quilts; if you visit the link you can see what it is "supposed" to look like. When I decided to make a crumb quilt it took me a while to settle on a pattern. I wanted something with a traditional block or star; I didn't want to do rectangles or strips or square blocks. I wanted to use the "made fabric" in a recognizable block and I settled on August Stars because I thought it would give me both complexity and simplicity.

I think it worked well! I'm really happy with it. Each star is made of six parallelograms and each parallelogram took about an hour each to make when I sewed them at home. I brought my scrap bag to last winter's retreat and was able to complete the 19 parallelograms I needed to finish the last row of the quilt in about six hours of sewing time. You really can get a lot done at retreats!

You can see what a block looks like by clicking here. A row is five blocks with left- and right- handed edge blocks.

Then I took my blocks home and finished the top and quilted it with Aurifil monofilament and my favorite Quilters Dream Green batting. I wish I had quilted it more heavily because of all the little seams in the stars, but I think it will be okay. The background fabric is a Japanese import I got at Britex Fabrics in San Francisco a few years ago. I only had a yard of it so I could not make the quilt any bigger than this. As it is I added an additional row on to the bottom of what is the smallest size in the pattern.

I used scrappy binding from my stash to finish it. Rather than cut off the jagged edges and bind straight edges I decided to bind the jagged edges with skills I learned doing partial-seam herringbones. After having spent the time I did making those scrappy parallelograms I did not want to cut off anything!

Retreat!

Last weekend was my guild's retreat; we have two per year, one in January and one usually in May.

This is a block from my project. The pattern is called Resilient; it's by Brooke Shankland of Eudaimonia Studio. I believe the pattern was a free download from Art Gallery Fabrics. Eudaimonia's website is EudaimoniaStudio.com and you can find them on Instagram at @EudaimoniaStudioUS.

The fabric is from a 22-fat quarter pack of Anna Maria Horner fabrics I won at a giveaway a couple of years ago. I used 16 of the fats for the blocks; I'll use another for the binding along with scraps leftover from the blocks.

I finished 12 of the 16 blocks during the retreat and I have two more to go now. 

I'm happy with how it's coming out. I think the fabric is a great fit for the pattern and I can't wait to get the whole thing pieced up. It's going to be about 52 inches square when done.

Another Outfit for Eugenie

 

If you know me IRL you know that I am obsessed with Hill House Home and their signature garment, the Nap Dress, which is basically a tiered midi dress with ruffled straps. I own waaaaaay too many of these dresses, as my husband will agree no doubt. 

I buy most of them new but I have had occasion to shop Poshmark for the odd out-of-print dress and once when I was on Posh I found that someone was selling a tier from her dress that she had removed to make it the right length for her (presumably she was shorter than 5'3" or so, which is the point at which these dresses would start to drag on the ground). I don't actually own a Nap Dress in this print, but I bought the tier because it was very cheap and because I thought I could make a dress for Eugenie out of it.

(The print is no longer available new and the used dresses are kind of out of my budget. People tend to price them like collectables rather than like used clothing.)

The tier was about the right size for a tunic sized top made out of the Rose pattern which I've used before for dresses for my girl.  You can't see this in the photo but I used scallop shell buttons made out of coconut to close it at the shoulders. 

I think she looks cute and all ready for summer!