Sunday, March 10, 2013

Big Star Flimsy Finish

I have another flimsy finished for my Stash-Busting-Niece/Nephew project.  The goal is to get 6 utilitarian quilts finished by November.  I have been trying to get quilts done for everyone for about 5 years but trying to super personalize what I made really slows down progress worrying about if it's "right".  I'm changing strategies and will have quilts ready at a family gathering and they can either pick one of them they like, or wait for the next time I have something to choose from.
I made this from a stack of Joel Dewberry fat quarters that Anna gave me last year for my birthday.  When I was little, orange was my favorite color.  Working with these fabrics reminds me that I still like it.

Thanks to Ella from Throw a Wrench in the Works who suggested this pattern in response to an earlier post.  The inspiration post is from incolororder.com.

It was not without it's challenges.  I did manage to find the remnants of the IKEA apple green sheet in the garage to use as sashings.  I took the remaining 9" pieces to make this framing 1" strip of the design fabrics. I'm really happy I did as it pulls the whole quilt together.   Despite my efforts to calculate carefully, I came up a bit short.

I cut a 1.5" strip off one of the remaining 9" blocks, then added some yellow from the stash.  No one will ever notice that this corner doesn't have the same 2.5" blocks of the rest of the border.  Shhhh!

While digging around in the large yardage bins in the garage, I found this print that I bought last year on deep clearance.  It was cheap because the color is a terrible shade of baby poop.  Kind of green...kind of tan, but not really either.  But I liked the print and thought it might work on the back of something I was working on that was chartreuse (it didn't).  Turns out it's the same designer as the new fat quarters - Joel Dewberry.  I had only a little over 1 length of the fabric to work with, so had to add some cream colored muslin.

Unfortunately, when I started working on the back this morning, I had not remembered the correct measurement of the finished front.  I was thinking it was 72" square and knowing that I had limited fabric thought I'd squeak it out with a 73" back.  Turns out the front was 73.5".  Now there are some interesting design features on one side of the backing. (I don't make mistakes...I just make clever design changes as I go. Ha ha!)

Front and back finished.  100% stash.

I will FMQ following the designs of the fabric in the stars then do the fill on the green in something linear...maybe radiating out from the center.

The only thing left is this one piece 7"x10" piece of poo colored fabric.   It doesn't match anything at my house.  Would you like to save it?  Maybe you have it's siblings.  Or have a thing for poo colored fabric.   I'm willing to spend $0.46 to mail it to someone in the U.S.  First reply wins.

Addendum:  Poo color fabric has a new home.  You are safe making comments now.

7 comments:

Marj said...

The poo color could be a light in a very scrappy quilt...if it is cut small enough.

quiltermom said...

Doesn't it make you wonder sometimes what the designer was thinking? Didn't he notice that his fabric was poo colored?

Julie Fukuda said...

I just knew a solution would find you! Great job!

Unknown said...

Why not play with that bit of fabric and try some over dying or fabric painting or something like that - check out Rossie's blog http://www.r0ssie.blogspot.co.uk/ or Malka's blog http://stitchindye.blogspot.co.uk/ for ideas

Tina said...

Love the colors, love the design. Isn't it amazing how creative we can get when we run a bit short on one fabric we need.

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

I love it!!

Lynne said...

Ah yes, design elements! Always useful! LOL

I think it looks fabulous!