never seen one like this before

**Edit on 2.10.10**

Sharon suggested I contact Barbara Brackman for her views on the pattern. Here is Barbara's reply to my email.

Wow. Never saw them before. See this post

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/02/mystery-pattern-swirl.html
I'll put a link to your post in my next post on mystery patterns. How's that sound?
Barbara Brackman

Thanks Barbara for some further insight to these stars.

**and another update**

14.10.2010

See Barbara Brackman's recent post for an update.

You may have realised, if you've read a few of my posts, that I have a penchant for the somewhat unusual, quirky, ideosyncratic, eccentric (OK you get the picture).

When these blocks appeared on an internet auction site I knew I HAD to own them. Fortunately, no-one else cared for them. What's not to love I ask? mustard + pink, stars, spinning stars...

I've scoured Brackman's Encycopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and can't find an exact match; the closest being 3762 King's Star however the centre of that star is made of wedges as opposed to the spiral of mine- perhaps my blocks are an original design? I've decided their working title is "Percy's Stars" (as in Perseus the spiral arm of the Milky Way) for the interim...have to have a name for all the quilts I'm working on , don't you?

My guess is they are 1920's-30's vintage. The blocks are all hand pieced, and someone has started to set the stars together with a plain muslin... I'm thinking that I'll continue this, although I will need to de-construct and re-piece some of the stars -the points are not quite matching up. Fortunately I consider hand piecing and set-in seams enjoyment.

Percy will have to wait, though, others are clamouring for attention. sigh.

1860's red and green applique

Recent posts by Kathie, Taryn and Donna on red and green applique and Baltimore applique have prompted me to share a treasured old piece.

It measures 74cm square (about 30") and is hand sewn with white thread.  There is quite a lot of staining on the background muslin, however I'm undecided about washing it.

I've collected several red/green/cheddar applique and pieced blocks, thinking to one-day combine them Paul Pilgrim style into a "blended" quilt, but haven't worked up the courage as yet!

Miss Empty Field has just left for the beach and taken every digital camera in the house with her, so I'll have to photograph the other blocks for another post.

"Beach" you exclaim! Yes... Spring has delivered a second glorious 27C day here in Sydney, yesterday I took another few shots around my garden.

  My favourite... Hellebores.





Dogwood - not really suited to Sydney but it gets a great deal of care!

Afternoon sun on the Clivea.

Until next time...happy sewing.

quilt design for maths tragics

A design dilemma has been plaguing me for some time now....I thought my problem was how to turn a hexagon into a square. For maths tragics like me it's a difficulty both in design and geometry.

Some years ago I purchased a quilt top that had potential. It was a six-pointed, very scrappy Lone Star with 4 mini-lone-star satellites. The stars were made of 1880-1900's scraps, but they had been set in a quite horrible purpley-mauve background and the arrangement wasn't working for me. Thankfully the mauve was faded and shredding and I felt no remorse unpicking the stitches to free the stars.

Lone Star quilts with a myriad of satellite stars have long whispered to me, so my mind started heading towards making more little stars to twinkle around "big momma" star. Then I discovered something - did you know six point stars behave quite differently to 8 point stars? The 60 degree angles of 6-point stars are less attractive to me somehow than the familiar 90 degree angles of 8-point stars.

my inspiration....
image scanned from "The Quilt Engagement Calendar Treasury" by Cyril Nelson and Carter Houck

More stars were sewn, but nothing seemed right. I reached the point as photographed below and was not happy, so everything was folded up and put away more than 12 months ago, to revisit another time.

my work so far.... original pieces are the large star + 4 smaller stars, I have made 8 extra stars

Today, while flipping through some old Quilt Engagement Calendars, I came across a wonderful quirky 1900's Star of Bethlehem Quilt with a bold pieced background.

image scanned from 1982 Quilt Engagement Calendar

I knew it was right for my stars, immediately realising that my REAL problem had not been geometry based but design based - I had been trying to impose control over my "unruly child", when really I should have been finding a way to set my stars free.

My task for this weekend is to unpick my sewing to date, to piece a variety of shirtings for the background setting pieces and to start appliqueing the mini-Lone-stars in place, and perhaps to make a start on some tiny little itty bitty stars just for good measure...my mantra - more whimsy, less control freak.

Don't you just LOVE Eureka moments!

spring!

spring has sprung

the grass is riz

I wonder where the birdies is?

(anonymous)

Cherrys, Wisteria and Jasmine are competing to see who can outdo the other in fragrance and spectacle. Robinia and Maple leaves are peeking through their bark and the trees will be fully clothed within the week.

However, all is not right in the land of Empty Field...my mad little birds and I are not speaking. The birds were not playing nicely last weekend at our monthly Marg Sampson workshop.  Maybe its Spring.  The right fabric combinations for the birds of the centre applique block just wasn't happening and after spending more than an hour cutting multiple combinations for birdy bodies,  I've decided a temporary separation is for the best, so I've tucked them in a cupboard until they I come to their my senses.

Meanwhile, I have been finishing up.....

Hexagon Stars which will form the four corners of the nine-block mad little bird applique arrangement.

My circles are not perfect, but it's meant to be whimsical OK? The blocks will be 21" finished, the hexxies are 5/8", and no, I haven't counted how many meelions (said with Dr. Evil accent) of hexxy papers I've used.

Well, one teeny little bird crept in...

And these - the beginnings of an idea for the border. Yep, more hexagons.

Many more hexxy border mountains to do, so I intend to enjoy the balmy spring temps covering small hexagonal shaped papers with fabric before what I suspect will be a scorching summer.

As for the birdys? Ha ha ha! I laugh in the face of birdys.

labelling your quilts

My friend Liz recently wrote about labels and wisely said a quilt is not finished until it is appropriately labelled.  I wholeheartedly agree, having seen many an antique quilt with absolutely no provenence, which leaves us all wondering the who, where and whens of the quilt.

Her post reminded me of a quilt made a while back for Miss EF and it's fun little label.

The embroidered blocks were purchased from an eBay dealer already completed.  They were nicely stitched on white cotton and in good condition.  They remind me of the dogs in Disney animated films. I framed them with a fun Scotty dog 1930's reproduction with a mixture of blue repro cornerstones and narrow red and black borders. The backing is a blue '30's repro.

Quilted with triple diagonal lines on the blocks, teacups in the sashing and diagonal lines 1 width of masking tape apart on the outer border.

The label was a bit of fun. The crazy song of the same title was on the radio and a favoutite of Miss EF at the time (she'd kill me for mentioning this now!) 

I design my labels with either MS Publisher or Word, print them out and reduce/enlarge to the right size on a photocopier. Then tape to a window, lay over the label fabric and trace using black Artline Drawing System pens (a throwback from my architectural drafting days). I prefer these to Pigma pens and they come in a range of thicknesses from very fine to nice and chunky 0.8 or 1.0's.  I'll iron the finished label with a hot dry iron to set the ink and they tend to last very well.

I'm curious to see if or how other quilters label their work. Do you label or don't you bother?