Sneak Peek on Star Quilt
 

Last Saturday, I was fabric shopping for the sashing and border for the PP stars I showed you previously. Here is a sneak peek on how I am planning to do the sashing:

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Wow, wow, and wow! looking great!!

Your sashing colors are terrific. Good choice.

Oh that is so smart! I have to bookmark to remember.

Great idea for sashings! :)

WOW! looks great!

I don't do PP, but I really do love yours. The colors and choice of star blocks

Very pretty !!!!!

It is so beautiful, can't wait to see it finished!!!

Your sashing really show off those beautiful blocks

you doing a great job so pretty!!!

This is going to be striking.

It sure is looking great. I give it another wow too. :)

Super great and interesting!

Love it. BrendaK

Looks great, will be a beauty!

Looking really great.

WOW that is going to be gorgeous when finished.

very, very nice, wow

There is only one word I can think of to describe this quilt. STUNNING. I love it.

Love your idea for the sashing! I am looking forward to seeing the finished quilt.

looking terrific

Very clever sashing!

Very very nice. Can't wait to see the finished top. I love all these different stars.

your stars are so pretty and the sashing is prefect, it will be a beautiful quilt

What a beautiful quilt - love the sashing. Will look forward to see the finished quilt.

Beautiful!! May I ask the name of the green/gold star pattern? Is this your own design? I love that star- I've been looking for various star patterns to decide just which one or different stars I want to use to make my son a quilt using Star Wars fabric. I really like your green/gold star and think it would really show off the Star Wars fabric I plan to use. Would you mind giving me a pm with the info.?

No, they are not my own design (wow, that would be something if I could create them myself! :o). The stars all come from the book "50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars" from Carol Doaks. I believe the one you refer to is called "South Dakota".

If you want to see all my stars, I previously posted them here:
1st instalment
2nd instalment
3rd instalment

That's just the right touch for the sashing. The colors are neutral and pretty enough and the pinwheels are perfect.

Look at all those points! You did a terrific job. The colors you picked are great. Thanks so much for showing us.

Wow they are gorgeous blocks. Love the little secondary pinwheel block. Going to be a gorgeous quilt

Very pretty! !

Holy moly.......beautiful!

I can add to chorus of admiration for a great job, awesome selection of colors and a quilt destined to be totally amazing when finished! If I recall correctly(?) I think I remember this project being one of self exploration and a learn as you do experience ( with a Carol Doak book in hand) and now that it is reaching such a glorious conclusion...what have you learned to do, buy or incorporate that makes paper piecing easier, blocks better and what have you learned to avoid?
I recognize that this is a rather sweeping question, but I am sure there a lot of people here drooling and just a bit hesitant to start or restart doing paper piecing because of bad press or a not so great class...and your input can be so very helpful!

Beautiful, your sashing goes great with the quilt, I love the posts.

Thanks for all the compliments on my stars! You're right, it was very much learning by doing! ;)

I think one thing that came spontaneously to my mind when you ask about what I've learned is the following (please keep in mind that this was my first PP experience - it is probably common knowledge to most of you!): I find the hardest part is tearing the paper out of the finished block. I learned that it works best if before joining the segments, I would tear off the corners of the paper that would overlap. I didn't do this in the first few stars and it made it really hard...

I actually started with the first three, four stars a couple of years back (when I had access to my mom's sewing machine). I just did them with whatever fabric I had at the time (and I had no yardage back then, only scraps). Although they were made from all different fabrics, I tried to have some of the fabrics show up again in another star. That would probably have been easier if I'd planned ahead... But it was "do-it-as-you-go" and somehow worked out IMO although I didn't have any fabric left from those original stars when I continued sewing a few weeks ago.

Another (embarrassing...) lesson: I should have bought more of that sashing/border fabric last Saturday... :o Too late now, but I'm somehow going to make it last...

Not sure if this is what you had in mind, but I hope it's helpful to some! I'm still quite a newbie and realise that I learn A LOT with every piece of work I do - not least because of all the help and tipps I get on this board! You guys are my quilting teachers!

Beautiful, love the colors and the sashing.

This latest reply of yours is exactly what I sought...especially when it is fresh off the press while you are making this great quilt and reflecting on the process. I can see with each star the definition and intersections becoming more and more accurate. Nothing like learning by doing. I am a mere two quilts ahead of you, but you mentioned something about removing the paper and that brought something to my mind. I found that punching each line of a design with a tracing wheel and then using the suggested shorter stitch further weakened the paper and made it easier to remove. I also remember another posting mentioning a damp Qtip applied to the really tight corners allowing a maker to almost rub the paper off? I later found a technique on utube and learned by using freezer paper... that can eliminate sewing through paper altogether. :thumbup:

I wonder if we started a thread or created a category just for paper piecing ...how many pages and great replies we might have as a resource for quilters, and how this sometimes loathed but great technique could be made less challenging?

Excellent Choice