eo-3 Star of Bethlehem - top assembly

The top assembly for the original Star of Bethlehem design calls for:

• eight star points
• four large triangles
• four squares

The junction between the two star points that would meet at the apex of one of the triangles or a corner of a square  is called a 'y-seam' and I have quickly learned that I need much more practice before I attempt this. So, I split both the large triangle and the square into two pieces.

Now, the assembly process changes to: 

1. stitch together one corner right triangle, one star point, and one side right triangle.
2. stitch together two of these right triangles to make a square.
3. stitch together the four squares.

The key is to make sure there are four each of the two orientations possible for the right triangle assembled in step 1. 

Also - solid pieces need to be cut with an additional seam allowance for the center seam between each solid piece.

Once I worked this out, I was able to sew the top together. It is 'okay'...not 'great'.

eo-3 Quilt layout

I went the lazy route and waited until the star points were assembled before deciding on the background fabric. I also decided to play with the orientation of the eight legs of the star.

The options; grey or white background, red or black center. The four picture below show the different options. The pictures do not include the entire quilt; I was trying to take the pictures without enough distance from the quilt.

It seems like the best of the four options is to have the red center and the grey background. It might have been nice to have a yellow or cream colored background, but I did not want to purchase more fabric. 

eo-3 Star of Bethlehem Point Assembly part 3

The eight points are assembled by sewing the diamond strips together, matching the seams. This is where you get to find out if the diamond strips were truly cut with a 45 degree angle.

Above, one of the points is shown. My seams did not line up very well...but out of a combination of stubbornness, curiosity, and not wanting to waste fabric, I went ahead with the quilt anyways.

The picture above shows how I ironed the seams. 

eo-3 Star of Bethlehem Point Assembly in Pictures

This post is basically the same as the prior one, but showing photographs of the assembly process.

First, pick the strips by the color list shown in the previous post.

Sew the strips together with a 2" (ideally) stagger between strips. The photo above shows how the strips were ironed.

The photo above shows the top side of the strips.

Clean up the edge by cutting the strips at a 45 degree angle from the long edge.

 

Cut the individual diamond strips by cutting the fabric every 2" from the edge.

Above shows the five categories of diamond strips in piles of 8 strips each.

eo-3 Star of Bethlehem - Point Assembly

The quilt has 8 star points. Each star point is composed of six rows of diamonds.

To assemble the star points, the strips of fabric are sewn together along their length, staggered by 2". Once 6 strips are sewn together, the piece is cut at a 45 degree angle every 2 inches.

The result is a number of strips of diamonds with the same sequence of colors:

Each diamond point needs six strips, or a total of 48 strips in the quilt. 

The goal is to use all of the colors in the series. This will be achieved by assembling the strips in five different arrangements:

1. all dark, 8 strips
2. red/yellow/light/light/medium/dark: 8 strips
3. yellow/yellow/light/light/medium/dark: 8 strips
4. light/light/light/light/medium/dark: 16 strips
5. medium/medium/medium/medium/medium/green: 8 strips

eo-3 Cutting list for Star of Bethlehem Quilt

The quilt calls for strips of fabric to form the star and a single color around the star.

Strips 2" x 44"

• 10 medium
• 12 light
• 2 red
• 6 grey and black

The star is surrounded by a solid material:

• 1, 19.5" square
• 4, 14" squares

I am not sure about what color the solid will be.

Next quilt...eo-3 Star of Bethlehem

I have wanted to try a Star of Bethlehem quilt, but with a more modern design. The traditional pattern is an 8-sided star composed of strips of diamonds. If you search, you can find templates with a different number of strips for each point. In this case, I want to use 6 strips per point.

The traditional design uses an approach similar to an Around the World quilt - where the colors in the neighboring strips are shifted over by one diamond. This has the net effect of an almost circular color pattern in the star.

For the third quilt in this series, I want a few differences: first, to use all of the colors in the Eastern Oregon quilt series and second, to have all of the outer diamonds be a dark tone (black and grey).

eo-2 Ladder to the Stars Top Assembly

To assemble the Ladders to the Stars quilt top, I  started by first laying out the blocks to try to get both a visible pattern and also a distribution of the dark colors.

I added the border blocks to the star blocks once I had a sense for the general layout. Then, I stitched the quilt together in rows. This seemed to work okay - because the pattern is so square.

Overall, the quilt top came together nicely. The tips of the stars in the square block are flat, because of the trimming I had to do on the individual squares.

The final quilt top is 60" x 60" - larger than a typical baby quilt, but close enough.

eo-2 Border Assembly

The border of the Ladders to the Stars quilt seems to be the easiest part. I have already put together the 40 triangle blocks. I just need 20 3.5" squares.

The border units use medium and dark fabric squares and triangle blocks with at least one light triangle.

I ironed the seam allowances toward the center of the block. This will make the top assembly tricky, but will also have a less bulky seam.

The final pieces needed for the quilt top are four corner triangle blocks. I made these earlier, as well.

eo-2 Star Block Assembly

The star block consists of four triangle blocks, four hour-glass blocks and a square in the center. I had made the triangle blocks when I put together the ladder blocks. So, all that is left is to cut 20 3.5" squares for the center of each block and to make the hour-glass blocks (80).

The hour-glass blocks start the same as the triangle blocks, but using the rectangles that were cut to 6" x 9". I paired medium and dark rectangles and drew the block details on the medium fabric.

I drew a rectangle (4 1/4" x 8 1/2"), bisected it to define squares, and added diagonal lines to bisect the squares. Finally, I drew in the seam guidelines. This lay-out had a great deal of fabric waste - but does have the upside of accurate block geometry. 

After generating 80 triangle blocks, I cut these blocks in half to form two right-triangles. The triangles are half dark and half medium. I then paired each triangle with a triangle of opposing alignment of the dark and medium fabric and stitched along the hypotenuse.

I trimmed each block to 3 3/8" and then assembled the star block:

In general, the blocks looked pretty good. However, I had some puckering along a lot of the seams. I think this might be a thread tension issue. I also ended up having the star points reaching the edge of the block. This means that, when the blocks are sewn into the quilt top, the points will be flat. Bummer.

This is generally the point where I have to decide if I will continue with the quilt or not. I am usually too lazy or money-conscious to start over. In this case, I also continued just to see how the colors worked out.

eo-2 Ladder block assembly part 2

The ladder block requires five 4-patch squares and four triangle squares. At this point, each square should be 3.5" on a side. A closer look showed that I am having the same difficulty I had with the Kaleidoscope quilt blocks - my seam allowance is coming in above 1/4". As a result, the blocks are closer to 3 3/8" on a side. I trimmed the blocks to all have this dimension.

To assembly the block, I had to take care (i.e. I had to redo a bunch of sewing multiple times!) to keep the correct orientation of the triangle blocks to the four-patch blocks. 

I sewed together 3 four-patch, triangle block pairs, and then added the remaining missing block for each row. Two of the completed blocks are shown below.

The finished block size was 9.25" on a side.

eo-2 Ladder block assembly part 1

The ladder block assembly begins with making the four-patches. There are 5 four-patch blocks each, with a total of 80 needed for this quilt.

I sorted out the 2" strips to match one light strip with either one medium or one dark strip. I tried to create as much variation as possible. I sewed the strips together and pressed the seam allowance towards the darker fabric.

Next, I cut the strips into 2" widths, paired each small strip with another - and the 4-patch blocks are complete:

The triangle blocks were trickier. With the extra fabric in the cutting list, I had to actually mark each block with pencil:

I paired two 5" x 9" rectangles (one light with one dark or medium). I traced a 7 3/4"  x 3 7/8" rectangle on the lighter fabric. Then, I added in a center line, two diagonal lines (bisecting each square) and added 1/4" seam guidelines. This final structure makes four blocks. 

The bummer for me is the extra fabric on two edges of the rectangle. I will save the extra but am pretty sure it will not be useful. If I ever make another Ladder to the Stars quilt, I will work out a cutting list with less waste.

I stitched along the seam guidelines and then cut out each block. I pressed the seam allowance towards the darker fabric.

I made enough triangles blocks for the ladder blocks (64), the border (40), the corners (4), and the star blocks (80). The light and medium combinations were saved for the star blocks.

eo-2 Cutting list and colors

The ladder and star blocks assigns the parts of the block by light, medium and dark. I am following a pattern from a book titled Quick and Easy Scrap Quilts by Patricia Wilens.

The blocks begin with:

• 2" x 22" strips
• 15 dark/medium
• 15 light
• 5" x 9" rectangles
• 16 dark
• 31 medium
• 47 light
• 6" x 10" rectangles
• 20 medium
• 20 dark
• 3.5" x 3.5" squares
• 20 medium
• 20 dark

At first glance, this cutting list appears to be pretty wasteful. I am going to follow the plan, though, in case there is a good reason for the excess fabric.

eo-2 Ladder to the Stars Quilt

The second quilt in the Eastern Oregon series is the Ladder to the Stars Quilt. This quilt is a combination of a ladder block and a star block with a border of two triangle blocks separated by a square.

Schematics of the ladder and star blocks are shown below. The finished block size is 9 inches.

With the intent of making a crib sized quilt, the layout will include:

• 16 ladder blocks
• 20 star blocks
• 20 border units 
• 4 corners (triangle blocks)

The full layout will be a square:

eo-1 Kaleidoscope Quilt Top Assembly Part 2

The quilt top for the Kaleidoscope Quilt is complete. Left to do is:

• make binding (gray)
• prepare the backing fabric (red)
• prepare the batting
• pin
• quilt
• bind

I plan to tackle this list of items after completing two more quilt tops. I think I do better with the quilting and binding when I do a lot of it over a period of time. 

The quilt is currently 48"x42".

Here is a picture of Spray, Oregon in November:

We are taking a sight-seeing break (and an attempt at breaking ice!). The picture does not really do the colors justice. However, you can see the giant blue sky. This is a treasure after weeks of gray and rain in the Portland area.

eo-1 Kaleidoscope Quilt - Top Assembly

The top assembly seems to be the point of complications for many of my quilting projects. I have become pretty careful about squaring up and trimming blocks to uniform dimensions, but even with this, there is usually some challenge.

For this quilt, the challenge seems to be the stretch in the triangle pieces. I sewed each block together in pairs (pressing seams open). If the triangle pieces were stretched during the block assembly, the resulting block is not flat. This only becomes really obvious during assembly.

The image above shows the back side of a pair of blocks. After pairing the blocks, I sewed the pairs together to form a 2x2 square of blocks.

The seventh row is left as pairs of blocks. I like to assemble a quilt top in smaller units like this to avoid having seams that stretch across the entire quilt. In this case, I sewed four 2x2 blocks together to make 4x4 blocks, and then two 4x4 blocks to make and 8x4. I also sewed the remaining 2x2 to a 2x1 to make 2x3 blocks, and then four 2x3 blocks to make an 8x3. Finally, I sewed the 8x4 to the 8x3. With this approach, I end up with a single long seam.

The final quilt top is shown above. I really like how the circular pattern emerges in the design once the blocks are sewn together. I also see a map compass symbol repeated in the top. The color combination is a surprise. I think there is too much red in this quilt - and as I was putting it together, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the landscape in Eastern Oregon. In autumn, the red comes from willow branches - along river banks. So, unless you are driving along the John Day river, there is not much of this color in the landscape. 

eo-1 Kaleidoscope quilt block assembly part 3

The final block size at this point is supposed to be 6.5". How did I come to this number? The octagon triangles are start with a strip of fabric that is 3 15/16" wide. This is the height of the triangle. The bottom edge is 3 5/16".

The schematic below shows the initial triangle in blue. The left and right seam allowances are shown in green and pink. A final bottom seam allowance is shown in light green. The vertical measurement is half the final block dimension (6.08").

If we add the bottom seam allowance in, the block size before assembling the top should be 6.58".

Unfortunately, my blocks came in well under this size. I am pretty sure this has to do with how I 'measure' (eye-ball) a 1/4" seam allowance. I use the edge of my presser foot on the sewing machine. For this quilt, the smaller size is not an issue, but I need to resolve this for subsequent quilts. The blog Sew Mama Sew has a good post about how to achieve accurate seam allowances.

For this quilt, I trimmed each block to a 6.25" square.

eo-1 Kaleidoscope quilt block assembly part 2

The final part of the block assembly for the Kaleidoscope quilt is to add the corner triangles. This required that I set the blocks out again, because the corner triangles on the quilt perimeter are all dark. The central blocks have medium and light corners.

In the photograph above, you can see the individual blocks with the corners added. I played around with the block arrangement quite a bit. I was surprised how the colors worked together. It took me a while to figure out if I liked the combination,and how to minimize what I thought did not work well.

The finished quilt will look different - mostly because I am disorganized. However, now that the corner triangles are added, the blocks on the perimeter are definitely going to remain on the perimeter.

Kaleidoscope Quilt Block Assembly

To begin the block assembly process for the kaleidoscope quilt, I actually laid out the triangles that form the 56 octagons. The intent is to alternate between light and dark or light and medium colors, and I wanted to be sure I had enough of the different combinations to work out. I ended up pairing some dark and medium triangles together, too.

I then sewed together pairs of triangles. In the photograph below, you can see the stacks of triangles - some pinned, ready to be sewn together and some stitched and pressed. I ironed the triangle pair such that the seam folded onto the darker fabric.

Next, I formed half of the octagon by sewing the pairs from above together. The picture below shows the front and back of the pieces. You can see that the center seam has to be ironed toward the lighter fabric.

At this point, I did not trim anything (see the overhanging seams in the pictures above?). The full octagon was formed by stitching the two halves together. The seam allowance was pressed entirely to one side.

One thing I have not worked out about this block is how to avoid having a thick knob of fabrics in the center of the block. This is where 8 pieces of fabric come together. I tried splitting the seam allowance after sewing together the two halves (half the seam allowance goes to each side). But, the fabric would not press flat.

Kaleidoscope Quilt - Cutting

The kaleidoscope  quilt (eo-1) was my first project with the fabric. The pattern I have divides fabric into three shades: light, medium, and dark. Each block is composed of eight large triangles and four corner triangles. Half of the large triangles are dark or medium. The other half are light or medium.

A block looks like:

The intended block-size is 6" square. The quilt will have 56 blocks arranged in an 8x7 grid, with no border. The corner triangles on the perimeter of the quilt will be dark.

To prepare for this, I will need:

               149 dark triangles for octagon
               150  medium triangles for octagon
               149 light triangles for octagon

Cut strips 3 15/16"  x fabric width. The template has a base width of 2 5/16". I used an acrylic triangle template to divide up fabric strips.

I will also need:

          52 dark corner triangles
          172 medium and light corner triangles

Cut strips 2 5/8" x fabric width. The corner triangle dimension has two short sides of 2 5/8". I used an acrylic template to divide up fabric strips.

Seven Quilts - Yardage

The question today is: can seven quilts be made with ~17 yards of fabric?

I want to make smaller quilts - crib-size. My sewing area is small, and I am not really set up to do the quilting on a large quilt with my sewing machine.

A baby quilt is usually somewhere from 42" to 60" on a side. To just cover the surface of something 42" x 60", you would need at least 2.5 yards of fabric.

So, for the 7 quilts, the sizes will have to be smaller than this - or I have to include the use of a white or other neutral 'background' fabric. I am actually going to use both of these strategies.

I have plans for four of the quilts using traditional designs:

eo-1: Kaleidoscope
eo-2: Ladders to the Stars
eo-3: Star of Bethlehem
eo-4: Irish Chain

These quilts are all similar in size - but use varying amounts of the seventeen colors. The Irish Chain is mostly background fabric.

I purchased a stone gray Kona cotton and white Kona cotton for background fabric. The gray will also be used for binding.

For the quilt backing, I bought some wide (144") fabric in a muted red hue.

The remaining three quilts, I hope, will be more original designs. I tried to plan all 7 quilts in advance, but kept hitting a wall with these. I have been struggling with both a lack of confidence in my skills and a lack of experience with quilt design. I thought I would make the first three quilts, and then take a break to design the last three. I will probably make the Irish chain quilt with scraps at the very end.

Ordering fabric by gray-scale

The final fabric preparation step was to order the fabric from light to dark by using a gray-scale conversion. To do this, I set each folded cut outside on a sunny day. I tried to order the fabric from light to dark. Then, I took a photo. I converted the photo to gray-scale and made adjustments until the fabric was more or less in order. Below are two of the photos from this process when I was getting close to having the fabric in order.

Getting the fabric in order by tone is important for block lay-out. In general, I will go by dark, medium and light tones. I keep track of which fabric is which by stapling a number in the selvage and I recorded the tone (dark/medium/light) for each number in my notebook.

Colors

The colors for this project were chosen based upon a Thanksgiving my husband, son and I spent in Spray, Oregon. The autumn colors dominated the landscape – and, while the bulk of the land was very dry with glowing pale yellow stalks of grass and muted green sagebrush in the fields, the banks of the John Day River were demarked by wine-red willow branches. The dark gray slate and black burned areas showed up periodically along the road-side.  I chose seventeen colors, mostly Kona cotton. I have worked with Kona cotton fabric before and I appreciate that the fabric is a solid woven color (not printed). The weight of the fabric seems more substantial than a printed fabric. I did include a few fabrics printed to look like linen.

The colors in the study are shown below. The four swatches to the right are the linen print (a print of a linen pattern on cotton).

I ordered one yard of each material. A few of the cuts showed up with a generous yard piece (end-of-bolt).

To begin, I sewed a zig-zag stitch along each raw edge. Then, I washed the fabric. I like to wash the fabric before working with it in case the fabric shrinks or the colors run. I completed a Kona cotton quilt a few years ago with red blocks on a gray background. I did not pre-wash the red and some of the red ran onto the gray borders – leaving a permanent discoloration.

The zig-zag stitch seemed to, partially, prevent the fabric from unraveling. I still had to cut some wadded up threads from each piece before I could iron the pieces.

I Heart Oregon

When I lived on the East coast, I thought Oregon was a perpetually rainy, gray state thick with acres of fir and moss. Pretty soon after making my home in Oregon, though, I realized that the state geography is varied and beautiful and so much more.

Years later, my son developed an interest in dinosaurs. We hit the road to look for signs of prehistoric life in the center of the state. Oregon was in the ocean during the time of the dinosaurs. As the seas began to recede, the plesiosaur was one of the only large creatures to be found in the local fossil record. What Oregon does have, is the entire fossil record of mammal life in the Pacific Northwest. The John Day Fossil Monument has been preserved to give people the chance to see this landscape.

The drive from Portland to the John Day Fossil Monument takes you from rain-forest, to prairie – and ultimately to high desert. The trees diminish in size and spread out – eventually replaced by grass and sage-brush. The sky grows. In the span of a five-hour drive, you can feel the space and the clutter dissipate.

After five or six trips into central Oregon, I had decided to capture the colors in a series of seven quilts. Why quilts? Why not. Probably because I love to sew. I like to make things that have function. I like to think about color. Plus, now – two years later – I hope this project gives me a reason to head out to central Oregon a few more times.

I began this project in 2013. I picked out the fabric; it arrived and has been in a box until this summer. In the meanwhile, I have had to complete other projects and give up a year of my life to cancer. But, now I am ready. This blog will be bounded by the project.