Farmhouse Spiral Lone Star Border Work

Spiral Lone Star Border Work

Yesterday was just yucky with cold temps and more snow. My mom had a special birthday to celebrate--any number after a 9 is a special one so I made the trip to see her when the roads cleared. Home again, reunited with the dogs, and a spot of lunch in my belly, I headed over to the studio to see what I could do with this behemoth. Yes, I have started to feel that way about it.

The star was started so many years ago, and when I look at it I see the wobbliness in the center. The work was so extensive to get it to the point of being attached to a background I roll my eyes. And in the background I saw the problem finally. This star was pieced and ripped and pieced and ripped multiple times. There was probably stretching in spite of my best effort. Stars are all bias. When adding the background, I used a backing fabric that was a looser woven so it also gave and stretched. A lot, a lot, a lot. When that was too crazy and not working, I took the star off, attached it to a lightweight interfacing, sewed and turned it, and appliqued it to a new whole background. See how that background can be bunched at the top like a worn sheet? It's very fluid.

Dominating my design wall, I was determined to finish a border, and take it down. I seem to learn best by doing, and wanted to use up scraps so started a single width border around the star with scraps from the star arms. Little did I understand they were all cut on the same diagonal, and if they went around the star in that order they would not make pretty corners. Not at all.

You can see what that looks like with the verticals left and right. So out came more strips, sewn and pressed, and cut in the opposite direction. When I paired them up with the first border, they matched and also created a finished corner. Also, and importantly, they added visual weight. I saw how much they grounded the heavy center.

As an added feature, the ability to add a star flair to each corner appeared. Ooo, that was cool too, and seemed to finish it. The border is there, but not sewn together yet. The headache of what to do is done. Next step is to create the corners separately, attach to the interfacing product and create appliques from each, and handstitch down. I can get that done in a week. Wish me luck, and maybe I'll even get it quilted before next week when I have to show it.

Though I'm not happy with the snow it helps me with deadlines. Please let this one be our last. It's been such a long winter.

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew--not snow.