Back to Quilting

I have been watching the great world and the many fascinating things in it; but I have also been quilting. Really I hav e. Here is #17 in the star quartet series. It's called "Boot-iful star" because the bright center motif looked like boots right from the git-go. It's a relatively simple quilt which went quickly. I entirely used up all the fabrics in the central portion so had to use different fabrics for the borders -- oops, that is except for the binding which is the background fabric of which I had enough to cut on bias binding In the picture it is finished except for the cat that gets added to each one, fused on -- the cats are from a fabric with about a dozen different cats and I had a fat quarter so I think I counted about 45 usable cats. I don't know if I'll do that many quilts but at this point it's beginning to seem possible. I haven't lost my fascination with Carol Doak's many variations.

In fact, I've got half the next one done .. or maybe not. It's this following picture but I may ot have enough of the gray backgrount print for the necessary four star squares. In all cases of choosing fabrics I've been an "eye-baller" not a measurer. One of my objectives is to use up flower prints and calicos that I am not terribly fond of. But as I go along on the new one, I waffle as I wonder if the gray will suffice, often I think no, sometimes I think yes. The only way to find out is to go on and see. If not enough then these stars go into the orphan block collection and I start over again.



This quilting business is all live and learn, don't take mistakes too seriously. Should there be enough gray print, great, if not, I've got a navy calico that would be a good backgound and I could use light blues or possibly, again, yellows or maybe pinks. So it's an ongoing adventure. I know some people take everything like a high school math test that will get them praise from teacher and parents. But I haven't been there in a long time. This is what used to be called a "hobby" and is nowadays called as "passion." But not a self-defining activity. I'm curious and I'm having fun. I like watching patterns appear, I like the great variety of stars possible, I like using up my stash, especially the sort of ugly fabrics like the gray -- which become much less ugly when put into something like this star. So that's it, no moral, no life lessons -- unless we really stretch our analogy making which I don't feel inclined to do tonight.