The next four stars in A Pound of Stars

The Quilting Gallery Show and Tell scrappy star quilts are amazing and there is a wonderful variety of stars. My quilt is called A Pound of Stars. I've been and voted for my three favourites - it was a tough decision but I managed! You can see all of the entries and vote here!

Today I'll show you another four blocks from A Pound of Stars and the final four will be tomorrow.

A Pound of Stars centre panel, early 1980s

All of the quilts that I remember from my childhood were utility quilts made of scraps. In the few magazines I owned back in the late 1970s there were pictures of quilts with a planned colour scheme and that was new to me. I liked them but I felt that they lacked something (and that's just a matter of personal preference). I preferred quilts that were more "casual", less "formal" and more scraptacular! I understood that you made a quilt with what was on hand and if you ran out of something you just added something else. And if the quilt was somehow less than perfect it wasn't a big deal -  in fact I kind of liked the quirkiness of the imperfections.

When I look at the stars in my old quilt I can see they are less than perfect and the colour placement can sometimes be jarring. In the following block I clearly had enough cadet blues so that they could be arranged in pairs in each larger diamond but the placement of the two in the lower right hand corner aren't right. There should be two cadet blues, two light blues, two cadet blues and so on. I can't remember if I made a mistake or if the anomaly was intentional. Either way I like it!

I think if I had taken a class or had access to other quilters I may not have slipped in the two lighter blue patches in  the middle round of diamonds in the following star. If they had all been made of the same blue I think the star would have been very boring indeed!

I believe I ran out of darker blue patches for the middle round of diamonds so I added a lighter blue print. Notice the lighter patches on the left side and two separate lonely patches of the same light fabric on the right side. I think this placement provides a reference for the lighter patches on both sides. This arrangement of light and dark is what I call informal balance! But it works.

In this fourth star I know that I didn't have enough of any one pink to make the entire round of pink diamonds. I used the three different pink scraps that I had and when they were used up I added the light blue.

Looking at this block (and the others) individually they do appear odd but when the are combined into a quilt I think that they kind of sparkle. There's a lesson here - sometimes you get too close to the tree (or stars in this case) to see the forest! It's good to get some perspective because just a little distance reveals something very different!

Looking at these blocks is dangerous for me! I've always loved this quilt and I'm thinking I should make another! Oh dear, I think I may need professional help!!!! Perhaps if I just drafted a pattern for the diamonds that would get it out of my system! I'll think about it for now!

I'm off on a field trip today. Come back tomorrow for the last four blocks and I'll also tell you how I finished the edge of the ice cream cone border! And don't forget to take a look at the Quilting Gallery Show and Tell!

Until I post again, happy sewing!