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.

034 - Coasters

Inspiration

When I came across some small scraps of this black and white print of birds and birdhouses, I thought it would be perfect for the quilt with birds and birdhouses and lots of black and white prints.

But because it was a very small scrap, I decided to try to use it in the corners of the flying geese border of the crib quilt ... but after making the square in-a-square blocks didn't like them for the quilt.

The four blocks became coasters.

Details

The coasters measure 4 1/2-inches square and are made from quilting cottons.

The pieced square-in-a-square is paper foundation pieced. They are layered and quilted simply, along the seam lines, AKA stitch-in-the-ditch, with yesterday's quilted feather design in the turquoise triangles. They are bound, like tiny quilts, in a traditional way with solid black cotton.

They will live in a drawer in the studio, ready for the morning latté or iced water or tea that is I often have sitting next to the sewing machine or keyboard.

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.

024 - Feathered Edge Star Quilt Block

Inspiration

Second in the series of 16 feathered star sampler blocks from the book, A Flock of Feathered Stars: Paper Pieced for Perfection, by Carolyn Cullinan McCormick.

Details

The Feather-Edged Star is Block 3 in the book.  It measures 12 inches.

Coincidentally, this quilt block, my 24th project, is constructed from 24 paper pieced sections.

In this in-progress photo, four of the twenty-four sections have been assembled to create the center star.

The triangle feathers on this block are the smallest yet for me, measuring approximately 5/8 inch. The detail photo with the penny, gives you an idea of the scale and is also closest to the true colors of the fabrics.

Below are the two feathered star sampler blocks made so far, together on my design wall.

022 - Blue Feather Quilt Block

Inspiration

Ater making the right side of The Feathers block twice, I decided I should try the other side.

Details

The blue feather is the other half of a block designed by Shape Moth and offered as part of a series of paper foundation pieced blocks in the Forest QAL. 

It measures 6 by 12-inches.

Here's how the complete block would look ... if I decide to put the halves together. 

021 - Red Feather Quilt Block

Inspiration

When I put yesterday's Yankee Doodle on the design wall, he kept insisting he was meant to be part of a quilt. That message led to the idea of including a red feather block for the future quilt.

Details

The red feather is half of a block designed by Shape Moth and offered as part of a series of paper foundation pieced blocks in the Forest QAL.

It measures 6 by 12-inches.

If it looks familiar, that's because it is the same pattern as the feather in the table runner used in the header of this blog, much much smaller.  I blogged about the table runner on my Sophie Junction blog in this post:

Feathered Feather - Finished

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.