The Birth of a Star Quilt - Part One

Welcome to Sewmiriam for 2016!

Thank you for stopping by and sharing in what I hope proves to be a creative, and inspiring year.

To start the ball rolling I am working on a wonderful quilt , that I spied on the cover of the Kaffe Fasset book Caravan of Quilts . It is called the Wheel of Fortune. My interpretation is above,
Below is a photo of Kaffe's original quilt . This next photo is a bit squashed, sorry about that! But, you get the idea....

I have made a trip around the world quilt before, using squares, but this quilt appealed  to me because it has squares and diamonds. It also has a mandala feel about it . What I love about these quilts is that you can get totally lost in the design process. When I started mine, I did not have any preconceived ideas about the colours that I would use, or the fabrics that would eventually end up in the finished work. I just thought and day dreamed, began my fabric/ colour play and let the quilt dictate its direction. This is the key to making a quilt like this. Let it happen. Each row will change the flow of the quilt. Expect to audition lots of fabrics before making your final selection. Do not be put off by this stage. It really is the fun part and you will learn so much from doing it. 

To make this quilt I decided that the only way I could tackle it would be to cut each row out and then see how it looked, before moving onto the next row. I did not start to join the squares and diamonds until the entire quilt had been cut out. 

Over the next few posts I will show you this process and the transformation from one row to the next.

So let's get started. I started with a favourite fabric from Art Gallery Fabrics, by Katy Jones from her Priory Square range. 

I fussy cut the floral squares from that and then paired them with the central diamonds in a blue on blue spot. That made the first 2 rows. I must admit I did audition a few other fabrics, but they just didn't have the same appeal as this combination. 

Happy with that I then tackled the next row. This time I chose a raspberry spot and a Tula Pink fabric. The effect really amazed me. It has a 3-D effect, and already the quilt was starting to emerge. On that pretty note I will stop for now. ( oops - the feet are an optional extra in the pic- LOL! )

Please drop by for my next blog in the Birth of a Star Quilt Series here at Sewmiriam. 

Happy sewing, love Miriamx