Saturday, May 30, 2015

Folded Star

Cristy Fincher visited our guild recently and I took her workshop on Paperless Paper Piecing. Working with her pattern, Folded, we used glue to hold the pieces together. Cristy is an excellent teacher - organized, patient, and upbeat.

This is the finished top. The center points are not perfect. If they bother me when the quilting is complete, I'll applique something or use thick decorative thread as camouflage. This top is 40" by 40"; a good size for a baby/toddler quilt.

Folded Star with border

I finished one twelve-inch block by the end of class. Cristy suggested a cropped photo in the PicFrame app (a 99 cent purchase.)

One quadrant of the Folded Star pattern

The app collages photo collections but quilters can quickly copy, paste, and rotate a single photo into different layouts. Like this.

Folded Star 1, single view

If you wanted a larger quilt, sixteen blocks might look like this. It was just a quick save and copy of the previous display in PicFrame.

Folded Star 1, multiple view

The layout I used looks like this with the app. The offset center and poorly matched seams are artifacts of my poor cropping.

Folded Star 2, single view

Sixteen blocks look like this.

Folded Star 2, multiple view

PicFrame made design decisions so easy. It was fun to share the results with other participants during the workshop.

I don't have enough fabric to make the multiple views. The single view finishes 24 inches. I added two borders cut 4.5" each. My first plan was to put a four-patch in the corners. It didn't look good no matter which way the red or pale green was arranged. Then I tried pale green inside with red wrapped around it. (Sorry, I forgot to take photos of these.) But the layout with red on the inside wrapped in pale green worked.
With paperless paper piecing, seam allowances are cut larger and trimmed after the seam is sewed.

Seams are trimmed to 1/4 inch after each is sewed.

The quilting needs careful planning since all the designs will show on these solids.

Edit:
Tami and Susan took the workshop, too. I just found Tami's website. She wrote almost exactly what I did (and she wrote it first) but head over to Lemon Tree Tales for a look at this pattern in different fabrics. Susan, who blogs at Quilt Frabrication, has another lovely layout.

Enjoy the day, Ann

10 comments:

Susan said...

That looks really good, Ann! Mine is still hanging on the design wall, waiting. And waiting. I really need to finish up some UFO's!

Ann said...

Now I need to actually quilt it. And I think it will need many straight lines. I'll need to practice ruler work. Scary because every stitch will show on these solids.

Mystic Quilter said...

This looks to be an interesting technique and I like your choice of solids!

Lara B. said...

Wow what fun you had playing with the design Ann. The small quilt you have created looks great! I am signed up for Cristy's Craftsy class on Pain-Free Foundation Piecing. Haven't taken the time yet to start it, but youhave me really looking forward to it.

Kaja said...

This looks good Ann. That app seems like a clever way to have fun playing with design options. I like your final layout and the colours you chose.

Ann said...

Thanks, Maureen. I thought the technique would be incredibly fussy but I was wrong. There is upfront work and you need a really fine glue nozzle but it's easy to do. I have several ideas to use this.

Ann said...

I want to know what you think of her Craftsy class. She was a very organized, low-key, fun teacher in ours. I like this top, too - just thinking about the quilting. I haven't made a solid quilt in quite a while.

Ann said...

Thanks, Kaja. I haven't played with the app much but it's good to have some new ways to lay out designs. Most often I sketch by hand. That's fine until you want to change something.

Tami @ Lemon Tree Tales said...

Your top looks great Ann! I still have to sew mine together. When I glue basted the three other blocks I made a mistake on the position for a pale green fabric. So I'm not sure whether I'll change those out or rip out the one from the original block that I sewed together. LOL

Ann said...

Oh, I thought I was the tail end. I only had one cut and glue basted. I wanted to change some of the colors but decided to "sleep on it." The graduation quilts took precedence. By the time those were mostly done, I thought it was ok as originally glued. So sorry you have this bad choice.