054 - Yet Another Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

The fabrics for this, the fifth of the traditionally pieced feathered star blocks in this series, have been cut and ready to go for weeks. Today, I was inspired to finish up the last of the cut fabrics.

Details

This is yet another Feathered Star I block from Marsha McCloskey's book.

Whenever I get to this point in putting together the block, I always think how it's just a 9-patch.

As I make more of these blocks, I naturally start thinking about settings and borders.  I started thinking about the idea of an outer border of those tiny 1-inch triangle squares.  It felt a little overwhelming until I realized that there's 56 inches of those half-square triangle units in each block.

Since I now I have five of these blocks, I had to see how they'd look arranged on point.  I doubt they'll end up this way in the quilt (because of the fussy cut centers in some of the blocks), but it was fun to play with the idea.

053 - Another Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

Once restarted, I was on a roll ...

Details

This is the forth of the large, traditional feathered star quilt block.

 Practice is making me get closer to perfect with each block.   I am really happy with the intersection of seams at the tip of the diamonds in this block.

Here's how the four blocks made so far look together.

052 - Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

I just haven't been inspired to do anything creatively for the past few weeks, but have returned from my un-feathered funk by "just doing it" and making another of the large traditional feathered stars ... the fabrics for which have been cut and sitting on the work table in my studio for weeks.

Details

This is the third in the series of stars made from Marsha McCloskey's pattern for the 18 1/2-inch Feathered Star I from her book, Feathered Star Quilt Blocks I: Really Hard Blocks That Take a Long Time to Make.

036 - Feathered Star Variation

Inspiration

Making these feathered star blocks has turned out to be a little like eating potato chips for me.  They're addictive and I am becoming anxious to see how a bunch of them will look together and if these scrappy blocks will play nicely together.  I can't stop :-)

Details

This is another of the 12 inch square, foundation paper pieced, feathered star blocks from the book, A Flock of Feathered Stars.  This quilt block, which is block number 10 in the book, is named Feathered Star Variation by the author.

Now that I've made 5 stars, I couldn't resist putting them in an on-point orientation on the design wall. I still don't know how many I will ultimately make, nor what the layout/design for whatever I make from them will be.  Right now I am just enjoying/perfecting the process.

031 - Feathered Star #4

Inspiration

This is another of the blocks from the book, A Flock of Feathered Stars.  It is the first block in the book, named "Feathered Star  #4" and is coincidentally, the fourth of the paper pieced Feathered Star blocks I've made for this project.

I confess that I definitely like some of the blocks more than others.  I've challenged myself to make at least one block from all sixteen 12 inch block patterns in the book over the course of this 365 day project.

Details

This 12 inch quilt block is the least complex in the book.  It would be a great place for a beginner quilter/paper piecer who wanted to make feathered stars to start–the triangle "feathers" are larger and fewer than most feathered star blocks.

I have now completed four of the feathered star patterns in the book.  Put them all together and they look like this.

029 - Finley Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

The daily feather has given me a different approach to making blocks for a quilt. Before, I might never had decided to make a set of (at least) 17 complicated blocks like these for a quilt. But when I thought of those 17 feathered star blocks as 17 out of 365 projects over the course of a year, it didn't seem like such a big effort.

Details

This paper foundation pieced quilt block is Block #15 in Carolyn Cullinan McCormick's books,  A Flock of Feathered Stars.  It measures 12-inches square. It is the third feathered star block made from the book.

If I use my blocks in a quilt like McCormick's Stars of the Night, there will be 16 twelve-inch feathered star blocks, one 24-inch block, set on point, in the center and a pieced border.

Look close and you can see that I ran out of background fabric and made do, with another pale blue print.

014 - Aunt Betty's (Feathered) Star

Inspiration

I recently won a copy of A Flock of Feathered Stars–the timing felt like a bit of synchronicity.  This quilt block, which is number 7 in the book, is Aunt Betty's Star.

While not microscopic–the author's suggestion for day 14–this block is quite small.  Here it is on the design wall with some of my other feathers to give you an idea of the scale of things.

Details

The patterns in the book are made using paper foundation piecing. 19 individual units are first pieced and then puzzled together to form the 12 inch block.  The foundation piecing technique helps the quilter maintain all the points on those triangular "feathers" in the block.

The book contains foundation patterns for sixteen 12-inch blocks and one 24-inch block.  I will likely be making more of these as part of this #365 project as well.

005 - Second Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

I knew I would make at least one more feathered star quilt block ... I just didn't know that I would be motivated to do so right away.  The prompt for Day 5 is to use some thing you collect ... and like many quilters, the largest collection (by far) at my house is my fabric stash.

Details

This feathered star is made from the same pattern as that described in day 2. I was curious to find out if the second (and subsequent blocks would go faster and be better.  For this one, I also re-organized my process into 4 discrete tasks, so that I could work on it in smaller chunks of time

1. Select and cut fabrics
2. Sew the triangle squares
3. Sew the strips of feathers (triangle squares plus extra background triangles and diamond points)
4. Sew the 9 sections (adding feathers to background pieces)
5. Assemble the block.

Here's how it looked after step 2.  I also decided to add up the number of pieces in an individual block–there are 161, 132 of which make up the feathered points which give this style block it's name.

Look closely at the block and you'll see that while I have improved a little, I could use more practice ... expect to see at least a couple more feathered star blocks from me. 

002 - Feathered Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

When I started thinking about feathers, I wondered if I could make a series of feathered star quilt blocks or if they were too time consuming for a daily project ... and so I had to try at least one. It might become the first in a series ... or languish with the other orphan blocks in my studio.

Details

This block measures 19 inches square (including seam allowance). I used Marsha McCloskey's pattern, Feathered Star I, from her book, Feather Star Quilt Blocks I: Really Hard Blocks That Take a Long Time to Make. It's really one of the easiest of the really hard blocks ... but it did take a while to make all those little (1 inch) triangles.