I am currently having a love affair with stars, specifically 8 pointed stars. I recently began hand piecing a large 8 pointed star, and last Sunday did a class at Threadbear in Castlemaine with the talented and wonderful quilter Margaret McDonald.
The class was called "Touch" and was a pattern of Margaret's, which has 9 stars set into a solid background, the appeal for me was to learn how to machine piece the 8 pointed star, as the hand piecing was going so very slowly........
The aim of the day was to have one diamond (1 point of the 8) finished before lunch, which I managed with not too much difficulty. After lunch we were to do a couple more and learn how to put them together. I managed 7 out of 8 points for the day...nearly one whole star done :) :)
The use of mirrors, for those who are thinking a star might be for them, are worth their weight in gold....being able to see a finished star, having only laid out one point, assists greatly in your color placement.
I used a range of fabrics from Moda, called Fig and Plum.....I was trying not to have to think too hard about what color went where. I find if I don't try too hard, the colors come naturally, I know what I like and what I don't like, everything else just falls into place after that.
I had a wonderful day as usual, I have never done a class where I haven't learned a LOT and had a wonderful day. If you ever get a chance to do one of Margaret's classes I highly recommend them, she is a wonderful teacher and very easy to learn from.
Its now time for me to get on with it and get some more done, but first, I have to finish the hand pieced one, the centre block is almost finished, and should only take another week or so to get the rest done, of course it will be a busy week next week, having the Victorian Quilters Exhibition on at Jeff's Shed in Melbourne, so possibly the quilt might get done the week after, unless something else pops up in the meantime :)
