Tuesday, March 14, 2006

String Star

Hurrah, our luggage arrived safe and sound, no doubt after an amazing vacation of their own. When I was telling ya'all about the handwork I'd been doing on vacation, it completely escaped me that all my work was all in the missing bags. D'oh. Good thing, otherwise I'd have been worrying even more about the luggage.

Inspired by Bonnie's recent post of an old maverick string star, plus her gorgeous string kaleidescope which she made with fabrics outside her normal color range, I present to you my string stars quilt.

Yes, this is yet another lousy photo and the quilt is in storage. I got a lot of quilts in storage and I'll be really happy to see them one of these days.

I used all sorts of colors I wouldn't normally put together when I sewed this back in 2003 (or was it the end of 2002?). I blame Siobhan. She was working on a strippy star in all sorts of fun bright citrusy colors. I decided I had to use some lemon, lime and orange too. She gave me some of her leftover strips to help me get started. The colors are kind of obnoxious, aren't they. Maybe I should have used a different background other than that gorgeous red, but that was the one thing I knew I wanted from the very beginning.

I string pieced the diamonds onto paper and then put it all together in the usual way, stinking y-seams in the corners. Boy do I hate insetting seams. I had mini-volcanoes but Bonnie did an incredibly job of quilting this bad boy and it was amazing how flat she got it. I've since figured out that if I just chop those background squares in the corner into triangles and the background triangles into smaller triangles, it would all be straight sewing - no insetting. Definitely the way to go the next time I try this pattern.

11 comments:

Darcie said...

Oh Tonya! Your string stars look like a party! How fun!

Glad to hear that everything that belongs to you is back from the airlines.

Great looking shells in your previous post. It'll be interesting to see them appear again...in your work.

Finn said...

Hi Tonya, so happy you had even a lousy pic of the string star to share. It's spectacular...and unusual for you..color wise..but I like it. It's kind of a Mari Gras feelig..or confetti. I don't think I would change the background, but would use whatever necessary to avoid those Y seams...she says, asking "Y not?"

Laura said...

Gorgeous quilt, I love the red. It is what makes the quilt so wonderful! Glad to hear you now have all your luggage back.

Anonymous said...

The background is perfect! This is a gorgeous quilt - very striking and I LOVE it :-)

Nancy said...

LOL! I've been playing with my strings tonight and thinking about doing a string-pieced Lemoyne Star and here you have one on your blog when I check in. :-)

My grandmother had 4 civil war era quilts. One was a string star that always fascinated me. My sister took them home with her last summer after Mama's funeral. I'll have to ask her to send me a picture so I can share.

Lucy said...

I love your string star very very much, it is something what I will maske once......

Quilts And Pieces said...

I love these string stars! I've always wanted one but just don't want to do those Y seams! I think the colors are great!

Patti said...

I think your star colors are marvelous! Makes me think of sherbert flavors. A very happy looking quilt!

Holly said...

I love those colors for your string star - especially the red. Beautiful!

Bonnie K. Hunter said...

I do love these colors......it was a very fun quilt, and really it didn't volcano all that bad!! If you never mentioned it, no one would ever know ;c)

Bonnie

Cher said...

I can see how irresistible that red would be- and bright colors...just comes across so warm and happy. yep, Y seams ...not appealing-good thought on doing triangles instead...or hand piece the diamonds to the setting squares.