star quilt

I started piecing this project I don't even know when. I know it was before thanksgiving because I had to put all of my bits in a box & give it to P to hide from me, so I could actually finish christmas projects, and not be distracted by above quilty. It's from the book Material Obsession. There are two quilts in that book featuring this star block. After a while I looked to flickr for some of equally foolish/driven people, and shortly after the Rose Star Block Party appeared. The M.O. pattern calls for 72 little kite pieces per star. The rose star block party folks over on flickr are for the most part using a pattern that calls for far fewer pieces. Wah. But I got over it. I really like the stripey centers of the M.O. version, so I was happy to stay on my original 72 pc per star route. I also thought, oh, I have so many done, I don't want any weirdos standing out. Until a few days ago, when I laid some blocks out on the bed to figure out how many I would need to make a sort of queen size quilt. Yeah, I need about 33. Sure, OK, I have NINE finished, and about four more started. So I buckle, I will try to incorporate some of the simpler shapes  and see how that goes. 

this is the plan for quilting. i am going to use sulky varigated yellow. i thought the varigation would be too much, but i did a small sample & it looks great. i also tried a lemon yellow, it was also lovely, but almost too pale. i mean, if your quilting is going to be yellow, it should look like yellow all the way.

oh look, it still works.

the blue & grey ihop quilt. pin basted. now i just have to quilt it. blerg. i like the handquilting process, but man, this thing is big. about 70" x 80". the only other quilt i have made close to this size is the log cabin that is on our bed, and i used a flannel sheet instead of batting in the middle, so i didn't have to really quilt it much at all. i cannot imagine the swearing i would do if i tried to machine quilt this. i don't know how people do it. i don't have the patience or the space. i'm super excited to have this quilt at this point. last weekend p bought backing fabric for me (aunt edna yellow plaid), of course, they did not have quite enough to make the full back, so i pieced it with a couple of kona greys. it's gonna be pretty hawt.