Block 2 - Timeless with a Twist is ready!
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| Block 2 - The Silent Star - Fabric Selection 1 |
Make sure to subscribe (www.sewonthego.net) to my weekly
newsletter to receive the alert when the new block is posted.
Now onto Block 2- The Silent Star
The Silent Star, dates back to 1871, but was known as the
Frank Leslie Design Block. However, the block became popular, as the
Silent Star, in church quilting groups, in the early 1940s in United
States. Many church quilting groups made comfort quilts, including the
Silent Star block, to provide comfort to war torn areas, but at the same time
to demonstrate America's conviction to stay out of WWII.
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| Block 2- Fabric Selection 2 |
This week’s block is a little simpler than last week, I
still have a few pointers, but first I want to take a moment to reiterate that
this Mystery Pattern Series is meant to use your own fabric selections and
colors. By no means do you need to mimic
my fabrics, they are just guidance. You
will note; that on the instructions, I provide a grayscale version, and then a
couple of my versions. So, pull out that
stash, scraps, fat quarter packs, etc.
I’m sure with a little bit of help you can make it work.
Which leads me to explaining the challenge I’ve given
myself. I’ve selected 3 different groups
of fabric, each with a challenge, that I’m hoping imitates some of the same
challenges you yourself face while selecting fabric. I want to share some of my trials and
tribulations in my fabric selection journey, in hopes that it will bring some
entertainment and knowledge to all of you.
Fabric Selection 1:
I have a ton of Art Gallery Fabric Scraps (not all in the picture), Fat 1/8s, Fat Quarters, etc. So,
I’m going to try and make my first set of blocks from just these fabrics. So far, and I’m just a few weeks ahead of you
all, I’m having the most fun with this group.
Fabric Selection 2:
At Quilt Market, last October, you may remember I purchased
a bunch of advance fabric in the form of Fat Quarter bundles (my favs!). These 2 pictured bundles are from Elizabeth
Hartman’s latest fabric line Terrarium (for Robert Kaufman). I was going to try and only use one of the
bundles, but you all know me, there was no way I was going to succeed at making
a ton of Sampler Quilt blocks with 3 basic colors. So far, this is my hardest group.
Fabric Selection 3:
KFC Scraps! This
picture in no way represents all of my KFC scraps, remnants, fat quarters that
I have, but the variety I started with a few weeks ago. KFC stands for Kaffe Fassett Collection –
designers Kaffe, Philip Jacobs, Brandon Mably.
This has been very fun. My
challenge with this group is using the larger prints in the blocks and also
making sure I have enough of the scrap to use in the block. Very fun and I love how the blocks are coming
out.
My goal, throughout the series, is to share at least one of
my fabric selections for each block. Ideally
I’d like the goal to be to provide two samples each week, but as my travel
schedule ramps up, I’m not sure I can always deliver two samples. Some weeks, you may even get a treat, and I
will share a 3rd version. At times, I will post the other versions on
this blog or in the Facebook group after the original directions. So, make sure you are following both!
Some weeks, I will talk more in-depth about my color/fabric
selections than other weeks, and hopefully you will find it interesting. This being one of those weeks. I wanted to show you how I selected the
colors in each of my versions and how I used the Grayscale photo trick to make
sure I was placing the fabric in the proper values.
Similar to last week, I was trying to use the Triadic
approach to this series. So I started
with a Light and Dark, of the Magenta that I just love! I found the light and the darker version on Color
Tab 17. Which informed me I was looking
for yellow (1) and turquoise blue/cyan (9).
Based on my grayscale version of the block I knew I was looking for a
light of the yellow and medium of the turquoise. I began pulling fabric and taking photos, which gave
me some perspective. Then using my
smart phone, I change the effects to the grayscale to see if my values were
correct.
Fabric Selection 2:
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| Fabric Selection 2 for Block 2 |
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| Grayscale of Fabric Selection 2 |
For this block, I had to move into that second fat quarter
pack (see, I didn’t even make it 2 weeks with 3 colors!). I opted to go with a split complimentary
approached. Starting with that Aqua
Green (7), I was able to determine the Red (19) was the complimentary color I
needed. I elected to use the Pink, as
it was a light version of 19. For the other
values, I selected to use the partners to 7, Blue Green (6) and Aqua Blue
(8). Pulling those color tabs, I was able to easily put the proper fabrics from my bundle. I took photos and double checked before
cutting.
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| Fabric Selection 3 for Block 2 |
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| Grayscale of Fabric Selection 3 |
For this one, I also went split complimentary. I started with the fabulous light chartreuse
aboriginal dots (2) and lotus print (reading as Purple 15). So, therefore I knew, the other colors I
needed to find were from color tabs; 13 and 14.
Again, I pulled those color tabs and started to dig through my piles of
scraps. I took photos until I got
something I was happy with.
So, that is my lesson in color and fabric selection for this
week. I can’t stress enough, how
important it is to have a color wheel and know how to use it.
As far as organization and technique tips for this week’s
block;
- Take the time to organize your pairs! Make sure you use those color swatch blocks I provide on the direction sheet. Match up your pairs to ensure you are sewing the proper fabrics together. If you use paper plates to organize, it will be helpful (more to come on paper plate organization in future blog post).
- Make sure are pairing the fabrics with right sides together. I cannot tell you how many times, in classes, I have students who have forgotten to check to make sure they have placed the right sides together.
- Use a Quilter’s Magic Wand when drawing your 2 sewing lines for both units. Get the line nice and tight to the wand, and use a fine marking instrument to mark those lines. I love the Sewline pencils, they are ceramitized chalk that provide a nice fine line for you to sew on, but that eventually flakes off, and therefore doesn’t damage your quilt. They come in 5 colors and are great! Make sure to take the time to draw the 2 lines, you will be much more accurate than with just drawing 1 center line and gauging ¼” on both sides of that line.
- Swirl those seam intersections of those quarter square triangles, your blocks will lay much flatter. Many of you should know how to do this from classes with me. I may do a blog post on this in the future.
- Take the time to lay out your units, to make sure you have the units (colors) in the proper place before your sew your block together. Even consider taking a picture, you will be surprised how much more you see in a photo than purely looking at the units.
- Press the seams open using the pressing seam stick, you will love the results! Featured in last week's blog
I think that is it, go download the instructions and have fun! HERE
Make sure to page down on the webpage and remember to download
them by Thursday night of January 18th!
Keep Stitching,
Michelle
Keep Stitching,
Michelle
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