I had a chance to start working on my sawtooth star centres for the Star-y Log Cabin e-course I’m taking on Sunday. I couldn’t be more excited with how these blocks turned out!

I’m in love with the contrasting and bold (for me) colour palette that I’ve chosen. Plus, I’m getting to use some of my favourite fabrics. The addition of the Liberty of London Mauvey print (leftovers from this dress) for the star points really brings together all the colours. I’ve been slipping Liberty of London into my patchwork recently and there’s something about it that really shines. The prints and colours are always just so perfect and striking and lovely. (hmm… time to order more Liberty for the shop!)

As I was working away, fussy cutting those cute buildings from City Limits, I kept thinking that this is a brilliant design for a quilt! The concept is so simple and classic, but Amanda‘s unique approach and execution are what totally makes it. Amanda has been encouraging all her students to tell their own story with their patchwork and I’m really feeling a little story of my own coming together. Her weekly pdfs have been so energetic and full of great information that I can’t wait for them to arrive in my inbox each Thursday.

This week I’ll be starting to add my logs!!

We are a few weeks into the Quilt Sampler 2 class and it’s starting to come together! This is a fairly large quilt and the blocks are different sizes, some much larger than I’ve ever done. The Sawtooth Star section is made of six stars with squares in between. I’m going to wait until more of the quilt is done to decide what the in between fabric will be.

I’ve done sawtooth stars before in the Intro to Hand Work class, but I love learning different ways of doing the same block. That’s definitely one of the fascinating things about learning from different people.

Speaking of stars! I’m going to take Amanda‘s Star-y Log Cabin Quilt e-course. It starts up next week for eight weeks. I’m dying to learn some of her awesome tricks! Also, her enthusiasm for quilting is completely contagious. (see her adorable video here!) For anyone who can’t make it out to a formal quilting class, this is kinda perfect to work on when you want and at your own pace. I’m planning this quilt for a far in advance gift. It will be fun to work on a project with people in different places of the world. Let me know if you sign up too!

It’s been a few weeks since the Intro to Hand Work class finished and I miss it. I really enjoyed the freedom of sewing without a sewing machine. It meant that the class group was able to sit around the large table, chatting and working away at the same time. It also meant I was able work on my project when I was on transit or sitting in bed late at night.

We basted our final sawtooth star blocks with a layer of batting and a muslin backing, just like a mini quilt. I kept my quilting design very simple, echoing the shape of the patchwork lines. It’s cool to see the hand quilting pattern from the reverse side. I used both a round quilting hoop and a square Q-Snap frame when doing this project. I like having the flexibility to switch between the circular and square frame as I choose.

Hand quilting is amazing. I just love the way the it looks. When I see it, I unrealistically want every quilt I make to be hand quilted. The slightly uneven quality of the stitches is so charming.

Turning this one block into a pillow was so incredibly satisfying because the entire project was completed within just one month. It seems a big feat, compared to the ongoing quilt projects I have that are a year or more in the making.

I chose to use the turquoise powerlines on grey print from Repeat for the back of the pillow. It couldn’t be more perfect. I love everything about this graphic pillow. I’m so proud of it!

I’m pondering my next hand piecing/quilting project and think it’s about time I did an English Paper Pieced pillow. I created this gallery with some of my inspirations.

365 : hand pieced sawtooth star

I stayed up until 3am Friday night finishing my block for the Intro to Hand Work class. I decided to do a more complex border around the star. It wasn’t planned, but I like how the turquoise ended up creating a diamond frame around the star. Quilting geometry is endlessly fascinating.