My Charming Lone Star

I don't know what got into me the other day, but it must of been the heat. For some reason, I decided it was time to finish putting my lone star together and well, let's just say that I made it happen. Nothing was going to deter me from working on my summer project!

Putting the lone star together

So happy to see that it all laid fairly flat and the points where properly pointy--even in the middle! Wowsers. Did I do that? And then.... I noticed the problem. Do you see? Uh huh. Somewhere in the joining up all of the 9-pc. diamond shapes, I flip flopped the top and bottom sections on the left side. Yep, that would be me, doing what I do best.

I have points!

Oh my. And I thought I was being so very, very careful about taking them off the wall! Honestly, I just laughed and laughed. And not hysterically either. I just thought it was the perfect outcome for the conditions I was working under and it really tickled my funny bone! {Like I said, it must have been the heat, because otherwise I probably would have been having a good long melt down.} Oh wait. Maybe I was past the point of melt down? lol

While I considered the natural order of things, such as taking everything apart with my trusty seam ripper, and/or tearing out all my hair and trashing the entire project {neither of which I had energy left for}, I threw the two background fabrics up on the wall. Hmm.. If you know me, you'd understand that I'm an avid fan of good floral fabrics. The other fabric was on hand only because I thought there wasn't enough of the floral fabric and then, well, I cut my diamonds out smaller than I intended and blah, blah, blah.... I'll just say it flat out--it's been one of those quilts. {Please refer to 'Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again' for pattern inspiration, not the problematic fallout I'm experiencing.}

Auditioning a couple backgrounds

Anyway, long story short. I left the potential backgrounds up on the wall, we got the a/c fixed with regular/normal temperatures slowly commencing inside the house and I decided to sleep on it. Surprisingly, in the morning I still felt {sheepishly}, ridiculously charmed by my big 'oops'. It makes absolutely no sense, but it just feels right for me, for the chaos of our life right at the moment.

Sewing the star into the background

So... I cut out my pieces for the background in the floral and here we be. If you have the book, you'll see that I left off the narrow strip of contrasting fabric at the outside edges of the star. I love how this star sort of disappears into the background without it, but not completely into it if you know what I mean.

Playing with some ideas...

And yes, I am charmed by the results. Delighted! The center circles are being auditioned for now. They seem to add bring more focus to the orangey/yellow at the tips of the stars and slightly mute the effect of the {discordant} arrangement of the bright red diamonds. For the record, the center of the star does not NEED to be covered up! I just think I want to. So I probably will--it's my quilt after all. And thanks to LeeAnn at nifty quilts for giving me the inspirational kick start to get going with this oh, so intriguing project that it's turning out to be! Good blogging friends are simply invaluable.*wink

p.s. A Bethlehem Star quilt is quite possibly a hundred years off if the results of this quilt are anything to go by.....

My Practice Lone Star

Well, it's not out of my scrap bins, but it looks pretty scrappy to me! I've been staring at this pile of fabric for pretty much forever. Pattern ideas have come and gone and I always flinch and then start another project altogether. It's just a little bit too bright and playful for me to feel totally comfortable diving in!

Just playing....

But you know what they say about stepping out of your comfort zone! So I took it a step further and cut pieces for a smallish lone star quilt. My goal {someday very, very far into the future} is to make a Bethlehem Star quilt and wowsers, can I definitely see that there are miles to go before I launch into one of those!

My final setting

I started out mixing all the colors up into a very scrappy looking star. Yuck. Ick. I couldn't handle it, scrappy control freak that I am. Who knew? So I rearranged them with the yellow in the centers, then red and finally with the lighter blue/greens dead center, taking out the very darkest ones. The red didn't even last long enough for all the pieces to get back on the design wall--too overpowering. And I know, I know, the yellow center is very striking! I totally get that. But it doesn't suit me. And it seemed like there was a bit too much tension in the prints for me to be comfortable sticking with that arrangement. I am who I am....

It's not working!!

My very first efforts at sewing the diamonds together were absolutely NOT encouraging. I obviously have a lot to learn here! With a little determination I eventually got the points to match up reasonably close, at least to the point where I'm not going to be humiliated and shunned. I'm planning on taking this project pretty slow. Maybe sew one larger diamond together at a single setting. You know, if that setting doesn't take all day.....

Getting the points to match up

It's a start. And it's interesting. And still not my favorite colors to work with! I love the fabrics individually and buy this sort of thing when it's on the FQ sale table. But then never know what to do with it 'cuz my mind doesn't seem to work 'modern'. Oh well. My daughters are in LOVE with it and it could turn into a cute baby quilt too. Linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday!