Kosher Pigs-My Take on String Stars
 

Hi Everyone! I'm a new-ish quilter who has finally found fabric and a pattern I adore and have started to make as my first full quilt. When I saw the scrappy star pattern with its wonderful six pointed stars, the first thing that came to mind was one of the things I hold dear, being Jewish. Of course the six points made me think of a Mogen Dovid or better known as a Star of David, a Jewish star (think Israeli flag.)

I have lovingly named this quilt 'Kosher Pigs'. My idea is to make this quilt about the two things that I adore most. My father who passed in 2010 gave me my love for pigs (he was the reason we had a pet pig for a year when I was in third grade), so I knew I HAD to make a pig quilt. I collect anything piggy and was in love when I saw the following fabrics.

I'm using the following fabrics as my focal Fabrics, using pinks, blues, and greens for strips.
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I saw the pattern and the fabric and couldn't resist making it. The advice I read is that your first real quilt should be made FOR YOU so you can always look back upon it (and not worry that your novice skills will be noticed if you give it as a gift like we all want to as quilters.)

I was thinking that the focal fabrics could be used for triangles every few star points (one of the six in the pattern) to bring them more into play. Since pigs aren't Kosher, I would hate to have them be butchered when I cut them into strips smaller than 2 1/4". and to let the bigger piggies on them completely show I'd have to cut them at least 4", and since the pattern calls for that are 5 3/4" it seems silly to have 4" strips of one fabric. It would be a random scrappy look to them. I also have the following fabric and can't decide if I should strip it since the pattern it tiny or make it a third focal...
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Do you guys/gals think I should only have a single 60° triangle for the focal fabrics, or an entire diamond? Do you think I should use the two fabrics in the same star or only one of the points? IF I use the third fabric as another focal, should I do every other point of the star a focal (since obviously three is half of six)? The last question I have for now is if you guys think this needs foundation like original square string quilts? In the pattern and video they didn't use it, but I wasn't sure if it was something that SHOULD be done to support the strips that are from 1 1/4" to 2 1/4".

Hope to hear from everyone soon with ideas and thoughts on this quilt of Kosher Pigs!

*Huggles*
Alexis

Love the pattern and love the fabrics since I'm also a fan of pigs. I haven't seen the directions, but what I would do is to cut the pigs fabrics into strips the width of the pigs. The strips on the third fabric will be narrower than the other two fabrics. Then I would definitely mount the strips onto a muslin strip that is as wide as the length of one of the diamonds and cut the diamonds out of that.

I love, love, love the quilt. And the pigs just add to it! I find it interesting a little Jewish girl had a pig at one time. I'd love to hear that story, if you wouldn't mind sharing.

Welcome to the board! I myself am a porcine lover! I am really jealous of your fabrics! I have a few pig fabrics and am collecting more because I want to make myself a rag quilt out of them. I don't have any advice about the string quilt, sorry!

Love your fabric.
The chazas(sp) would look really cute on a jewish star quilt.
I have a nice little Jewish dog that walks around with an annoying squealing chaza in hs mouth. There is nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to the chaza squealing when the dog rolls over on her.
Where did you find the fabric?

That would be chazer but in NYese chaza would be acceptable - lol!

Another MOT....

I think two fabrics per star. it just adds to the look. this should be so very cute. lovely prints.
I"m collecting sheep/lambs prints to make a quilt with some day.

Those are great fabrics, especially the pink pigs with flowers.

Love those pigs,too cute

Howdy and welcome, from Texas! The fabrics are adorable. Please post a picture, when you finish the quilt! :)

Warmest welcome from the wild of western WI! I think I might just use one fabric per. Try making a couple of sample blocks to see how you like it done. And PLEASE post when you get this all together!

Yep...make a sample or two before you begin (show us...because we loooove pics.). Love your fabric and the story behind it, oh, and before I forget....hello and welcome, from Perth, Western Australia.

Your fabrics are too cute! Love the quilt. Great background color, too.

Hi Alexis! Welcome fellow tribeswoman! I LOVE your pigs! How about using a spiral design? Renae Merrill did a book on it... It works great for prints like yours. You should be able to find directions online too...My opinion, use one fabric in a star. But I am a minimalist....I think it might be too busy with both in a single star and you would lose the design. But how about cutting out 6 points of each and audition them singly and mixed? Really the only way to find what you like. And we want pics!!!!!
Ellen

I would alternate star blocks and pig fabric blocks. I'm afraid that when you cut up the pigs, you will loose the design and it will just be colors.

This quilt can be assembled in triangle units. It's much easier to put together that way.

Here's a diagram of the two triangle units (each triangle unit has 9 triangle sub units)

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Catmcclure-- are you then suggesting, the pigs be the light green or the dark green? Or trying it both ways to decide?
i think the Kosher Pig quilt is a great idea! My son wanted to have a Kosher pig farm when he grew up. He charged 25cents to get into his room, for years. That was supposed to be seed money for the farm. Lol. But he always spent it on other things. Today he writes plays
Most importantly, welcome to the qb from Philly!

I love your fabric! You must not be too new to quilting, as the pattern looks complex to me!! It will be great though. I hope you post lots of pictures....and welcome from Texas.

Dina

i would do two focal prints a star. Have you thought about making the big joining diamonds out of one of the focal prints and use a plain color for any stripping?

Oh, what fun fabrics! I can see why you just can't cut them, they're too cute! Yes to the diamond shape instead of just the triangle, and I'd probably use one focus print per block, alternating the focus diamonds with string diamonds. Hope that make sense.

Oh, and welcome to the board!

No ideas on your quilt. Welcome from Missouri.

The pigs are adorable. Your picture of the quilt just gave me a new idea for my next scrap quilt--I love it and have been looking for something like this for a while now. THANK YOU!!

very cute material. I also collect pigs.and one of my favorite saying is "when pigs fly" . when we eventually have a place with a dining room that will be my theme. my kids already gave me the plates of when pigs fly and pigs with wings and i have my pattern waiting to be used. I also had a baby pig when I was seven and lived with my grandma. it was like having my own puppy. they are great pets. I remember embrassing my stepmom who was a german lady that was very proper cause when i went to live with her and my dad we had to do a report on your favorite pet for school. well i wrote about my pet pig and the teacher thought i was in lala land and called my mom in to tell her what i wrote about. I remember her face getting beet red and her choking out that i wasn't in lalaland (crazy)but i did have a pet pig back in NC. the teacher and her became real good friends since we only lived about 7 blocks away. that was always a good laugh over the years. even though she isn't here anymore i can still see her red red face and get the giggles.

Sorry I haven't been able to write back till now.

Thanks so much for the welcomes and positive feedback. I'm always amazed to find out that others are as silly crazy about pigs as me! I AM curious if other pig lovers eat pork? I gave it up as soon as I could get away with it. I'm the baby of five, and a diabetic since I was five, so asking my mother to make two meals when I HAD to eat at certain times was a no go. She didn't let me decide that till I was the last bird in the nest. My parents weren't kosher, and were pro-pork. They didn't mix milk and meat, something they learned from their parents, but in the 50's my Bubbie (Grandmother in Yiddish) was told by my mother's pediatrician that Bacon was good for a child's health. (He was Jewish too!) Don't know why he recommended that, or what study said one of the greasiest food out there is great for kids, but my grandmother made her eat a lot of bacon!

The pet pig story goes back to my music loving father. He went to Woodstock, owned more CDs than anyone I knew/know (how many kids have to ask their father to turn the music down so they can study?) His favorite band ever was Pink Floyd, saw them live every chance he had and usually would drive all over to get to see them multiple times a tour. I was even lucky enough to see them in '96! One thing Pink Floyd people know is that every concert they have a huge pig appear during one of their songs. They even had the pig in the opening ceremonies of the London games. This started my father’s love of pigs, till he finally bought one when we moved to Augusta when I was in third grade. We learned that pigs are VERY smart, loud, stubborn, and cute. Piggaro, our pet, wasn't hand held from birth, so didn't like being touched, not very good for a pet pig in suburbia. Also, pigs are litter box trainable 100%, they're far cleaner than people realize. The only thing they usually don't tell you is that you have to change the litter at least once a day!

After that year my father lost his pig obsession, but mine only grew. I started collecting in 7th grade, when I got my first pig at a hospital gift shop after I had to be in for a week. From there it grew and grew. Now everyone I know buys me pigs, pigs, and more pigs! Last year I got a bouquet of 32 pigs!</SPAN>
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Most people would use the stars as the focal point of the quilt and the diamonds as background. Why not reverse it? Use the blue pigs, small pigs and other fabric without much contrast in the star strings and the pink pigs in the background where they will have more of a chance to stand out?