Pop Stars

The sun came out and the temps are warming. It is so exciting that I grabbed my latest finished quilt and went to the park for some photos.

 Because I did not add batting and backing to the muslin foundation pieced top, I love it from the back as well as the front!

The bright scrappy spider-web quilt will be used as a table cloth so I decided not to add batting to the already heavy top. It is long and narrow: 63"x105".

 The seams were top-stitched down from the back to keep everything nice and flat. I'm looking forward to picnicking on this cheerful table top!

 A black and white striped binding is one of my favorite finishes to a bright color scheme. This time I attached the binding to the back first and then machine stitched it down on the front.

 My friend, Vick,i and I worked on the web blocks together over the course of about a year. I showed you her quilt top here and will show case it again when she gets it all finished.

 The pattern for Pop Stars can be found in Material Obsession 2, by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Felke. I love so many quilts in that book!

 This type of finish would work great for a summer weight bed quilt also. Hmmm...do I really want to use Pop Stars as a tablecloth?!

Either way, it won't be boring, that's for sure!

Pop Tops

Vicki and I started sewing on our twin Pop Stars quilts in November 2013. A little over 14 months later, we finally have our tops together. Hip hip, hooray!

As, I've mentioned before, my wonderful friend, Vicki, and I try to sew chat shop together every Tuesday. This is our third project together. You can see the other two, here and here. We finished right as the sun was setting yesterday so hurried outside for a photo to mark the event!

We've taken some breaks during holidays and so forth, but always have Sew Day marked on our calendars. We even took our fabrics on a road trip to Ouray, Colorado, last spring for several days of back-to-back stitching!

Bright strips, cut 1.5 inches wide from my stash, were sewn down foundation-piecing style using instructions from Kathy Doughty in her awesome book, Material Obsession 2. Each block is 22 inches across!

Vicki had a collection of Civil War type fabrics that she wanted to use up for this project. We both adore how lovely it turned out by pairing the duller strips with the brighter, red polka dot stars! (Marble likes it, too!)

Seen from the back, the colorful seams show up so cute against the muslin foundations. I'm tempted to just topstitch down each seam since I'll be using my Pop Stars quilt as a tablecloth. Or, should I back it with flannel and leave out batting? It's already quite heavy.

Have any of you had experience with doing such a thing? I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. Meanwhile, Vicki and I are planning our next Sew Day  project!

Pop Stars

A Spider Web quilt has been on my "To Do" list for years. My sewing buddy, Vicki, and I decided to make that our next project for "Sewing Tuesdays". Since we just finished up making playhouses for our grandchildren, we are both ready for some quilty fabric love!
Kathy Doughty's instructions will be our guide.

Our webs will be made with 1.5 inch strips so I dug through the ones that I've been accumulating from other projects and pulled the bright ones. Today, I'm adding more strips cut from my fabric stash. Since I store my stash in drawers by color, it is easy to pull out a drawer and choose the fabrics I'd like to add to the quilt.

When Vicki and I sew together, I usually get out my lovely featherweight Singer and park her on the dining table. (Looks like she could use a dusting!!)

Vicki sews on a Pfaff which is very portable, as well.

I'm loving the look of Vicki's beginnings of a web! Using a stash of reproduction fabrics that she collected several years ago for the strips, she is adding a large red dot which will be the stars in the design. The spots really brings a modern balance to the traditional look of the strips.

For the stars in my quilt, I chose a bright red floral called Gypsy Girl by Lily Ashbury. The selvage notes 16 colors in the design. That's good, since I'll be using tons of colorful strips to make the webs!

We have agreed to only sew on our quilts when we can do it together so we will probably be working on them all through the winter months. They will add some cheer to the drab cold days ahead.

I can already tell that making these blocks is like eating potato chips...it's hard to stop at just a few! Our next sewing day can't come soon enough!