Hello and Happy May! I have another Stonefields appliqué block to share with you, the first of two "Four Little Stars" blocks. It was quite fiddly but I'm pleased with how it turned out.
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| Stonefields Block 24, "Four Little Stars" |
The other accomplishment I'm proud of is that I finally got over my fear of trimming down the oversized appliqué backgrounds on all of my completed blocks for this quilt, and no applique blocks were destroyed in the process! Now that all of my Stonefields blocks are 6 1/2" unfinished, it's easier to mix them up on the design wall and get a better feel for how this sampler quilt is taking shape. That will help me make decisions about which colors, prints, values to use more or less of in subsequent blocks. Stonefields is a sampler quilt pattern designed by Susan Smith, and this post contains affiliate links .
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| Stonefields In Progress, All Appliqué Blocks Trimmed to Size |
I'll document how I trimmed those blocks for Future Rebecca's benefit later in this post. First, let's talk about the Four Little Stars block.
The first thing I did was grab my ruler and black pen to trace over the barely-there lines on my pattern sheet. I traced around the four star shapes as well as the outer square indicating the seamlines of the finished block, and then I used my ruler to mark horizontal, vertical and diagonal reference lines. AAAAARGH... Zoom in, folks. Notice anything?
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| Each Star Shape Is Different, None Are Mathematically Accurate |
The pattern instructions warn not to expect the stars to match up perfectly, but I was still surprised to discover that the star shapes are neither identical, mathematically accurate, or symmetrical. See how those diagonal placement lines go through some of the inside corners on the stars, but not all of them? The outer star points are also not a uniform distance from the edges of the block. So my first choice was, do I create my block using the imperfect pattern given, or do I take the extra time to draft my own symmetrical star templates? Truly symmetrical stars would be a lot easier to position on the block with all of their points touching and an equal amount of background fabric between the star points and the seam lines on all four sides of the block. However, when I first saw photos of Susan Smith's Stonefields quilt I was smitten with subtle things about the quilt that reminded me of an antique quilt. There are areas of low contrast between fabrics, as though some fabrics had faded more than others due to unstable dyes, or the mixture of very simply constructed blocks with others that suggest the maker deliberately set herself a challenge to see whether it was even possible to create a complicated design out of little fabric bits. And yes, the irregularity and slight differences between four little stars that are nearly but not quite identical is also contributing to that "hand of the maker" aesthetic that I admire about Susan's quilt. So I went with the stars as printed on my pattern sheet, glad to know ahead of time that they would be tricky to position properly on the blocks.
One more thing -- the pattern instructions tell you that you can reuse the small star template you made in Block 18 "Star In a Star" (see my version of that block here) and I suppose you could, but when I overlaid the two pattern sheets and held it up to the light, that star was not identical to any of these stars, either. In making my Four Little Stars block, I traced all four stars individually onto the reverse side of a fusible washaway stabilizer product from C&T Publishing that has been in my stash for awhile. (Other brands that work for this method are Floriani Stitch N Wash Fusible, or Mark Sherman's Remarkable Machine Appliqué Stabilizer, which can also be difficult to find). Quick side note here -- notice in the photo below how different that Liberty of London floral print lawn looks with the bright white paper behind it compared to how it looks over my coral pink cutting mat. Using a leave-in stabilizer product for the applique with fabrics like this can hugely improve the finished look of the project, preventing the background fabric from shadowing through the appliqué fabric and making seam allowances obvious and conspicuous. That's one of the reasons why I chose to use this method for this particular block, using these particular fabrics.
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| Tracing Stars Onto Leave-In, Fusible Wash-Away Embroidery Stabilizer |
This type of stabilizer was developed for use in machine embroidery to provide support for thousands of stitches during the embroidery process, but with a softer hand after washing since some of the fibers in the stabilizer dissolve and get washed away when the project is laundered. These features make it really useful for applique as well. So I traced the stars on the fusible glue side of the stabilizer, cut them out, and then used my iron to fuse each star to a different fabric. I cut out the stars with an eyeballed turning allowance, carefully clipped those inside corners, and then used my favorite June Tailor fabric glue pen to carefully wrap the seam allowances around the stabilizer template edges. I like the June Tailor fabric glue pen better than those others that are trending right now because the June Tailor glue stays thin and slippery, easier for me to control, whereas the other brands leave thick chunks of glue on my project and get all over my hands while I'm working.
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| Turning Seam Allowances Over Stabilizer Edges with June Tailor Glue Pen |
Note that I have not trimmed away the little flags that form at the acute angle star points! I have folded them back on themselves and flattened them down into place with a manicure orange stick. I also use that orange stick to coax the itty bit of fabric in and under at the inside star points.
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| Fabric Allowances Turned, Star Points Folded In |
Here's what that first star looked like, ready to be positioned on my block background:
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| Prepared Star Appliqué Ready for Block Placement |
I did drop my little star onto my pattern sheet to see how closely I'd replicated the drawn shape.
In the photo below, I'm using a Tilda chambray fabric -- completely against my better judgement, because chambray likes to FRAY and that makes everything more difficult. Too bad -- I love the soft, muted colors of a chambray, so I used it anyway. I did cut my seam allowances a little more generously due to the fraying, so you can see what I mean about the "flags" that form on the acute star points and how I fold them back in like an accordion. With this star I folded them in with my orange stick but then flattened them properly with the tip of a hot iron.
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| Folding In the Star Points on My Chambray Star |
I did not glue baste any of the stars to the block background until all four of them were finished, so I could make any placement adjustments necessary.
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| Three Stars Prepped, One More to Go |
I lightly pressed horizontal, vertical, and diagonal fold lines on my block background and used those to position my stars on the block instead of the paper pattern. I just rotated the asymmetrical stars until I got them positioned so the star points were touching as much as possible.
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| Four Stars Laid Out Using Fold Lines for Placement |
Then I lifted the stars off one at a time, trying to remember which way was up (and then promptly forgetting) as I dotted along the seam allowances of the star with tiny droplets of Roxanne's Glue Baste-It. Especially if planning to hand stitch the appliqué, it's important to keep that glue away from the very edge of the appliqué where you'll be stitching. Pushing a skinny little applique needle through dried glue is no fun.
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| Tiny Droplets of Roxanne's Glue Baste-It On the Turned Fabric Allowance |
I chose to machine stitch this block using the special stitch I programmed in my Bernina B990 sewing machine that looks nearly identical to my own personal hand appliqué stitching. I wanted to handle the block as minimally as possible during stitching to keep those star points all aligned just so, and I knew that there was a greater likelihood of shifting if I had to bunch the block up in my hand to stitch around each star. The block remaining totally flat on the bed of my machine is an advantage over hand stitching in this instance.
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| "Hand Stitching By Machine" on My Bernina B990 |
I always think of the late, great, trailblazing innovator Harriet Hargrave when I'm hunched up with my forehead pressed to the sewing machine housing for machine applique. I have all of her books and was fortunate to be able to drag my mother with me for an in-person class with Harriet at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium back in 2013 (read about that here, and note the difference in the stitching my machine could do back then compared to what I can do with my B990 today). Harriet stressed that machine appliqué was still "slow stitching" in order to be accurate, and told us to think of it like hand stitching with a machine needle. By the way, in rereading that 13-year-old blog post just now, I was thinking how shocked Young, Unwrinkly Rebecca would be to see me embracing so much machine stitching with this project today! So, for anyone out there trying it for the first time, I promise you that machine appliqué, like every other skill, really does get easier and easier with practice!
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| Invisible Mock Hand Applique By Machine |
As a quick recap for those just joining me, I'm using a size 60/8 Microtex needle with Aurifil clear invisible monofilament thread in my needle and Superior's 100 wt Microquilter thread in my bobbin, with a significantly reduced upper thread tension and no additional stabilizer whatsoever. With such lightweight threads, reduced upper thread tension and a stitch width of only .7 mm, I have no problem with puckering.
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| Ta-da! Irregular, Asymmetrical Stars Neatly Aligned and Stitched |
...And that's what the block looked like after I finished stitching. By the way, since I was using invisible monofilament thread with no color changes from one star to another, I opted to stitch the squarish shape in the center of the block first and then travel around the outsides of the stars one by one, completing all of the stitching without stops and starts. I pull my thread to the backside, knot and bury thread tails exactly as I would do if I was hand stitching the appliqué.
Hey, Future Rebecca! This Is How We Trimmed the Appliqué Blocks!
And now, to the TRIMMING! Because I have been quaking in fearful procrastination of this step for months, y'all. It's all well and good for patterns and teachers to advise us to oversize our block backgrounds and then trim them to size once the appliqué is complete. I understand the reasoning behind that, as the hand stitching can sometimes draw the fabric in a little bit and the raw edges of the block are apt to fray during the handling inherent to hand stitching. And yet, after spending sometimes several days on the preparation and stitching of just one block, the thought of a ruler slipping while I'm slicing with a rotary cutter and a hand stitched block getting destroyed in the final step is scarier than any Friday the 13th or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Even zombies eating brains are not as scary as trimming appliqué blocks!
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I know I've written about my Karen Kay Buckley Adjustable Perfect Square (Let's abbreviate that as APS) ruler set before, designed just for this purpose. I last contemplated it in this post from October, right before I had to pack my studio up for the move. Since the APS creates a 6 1/2" square INSIDE, I was planning to mark that line with chalk and then maybe cut along the chalk line with scissors. Meh -- that didn't feel terribly precise. What I did instead was to use a twist of a mechanical pencil to mark a tiny pencil dot in each corner with the APS ruler aligned as precisely on my block as I could manage. I sprayed a regular 7" square acrylic ruler liberally on the wrong side with Odif Grippy Non Slip Coating, lined that up with my pencil dots, pressed down firmly, and then sliced up and across the top with my rotary cutter. Then I rotated the block on my cutting mat to do the other two sides the same way.
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| "Four Little Stars" Survived Her Haircut! |
Then I remembered the little holes in the corners of the APS ruler, meant for tying heavy thread or string to mark the block center and diagonal positioning guides. I tried that with the next applique block snatched from my design wall.
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| 40 wt Cotton Quilting Thread Tied to APS Corners for Positioning Guides |
This is the ruler I used for the actual trimming. I think it helps to use a square ruler that is a little larger but still close to the desired block size. I completely ignore the markings on my cutting mat and only pay attention to the markings on my rulers.
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| Step Two, The Slicing! |
Doesn't it feel terrific when you put something off that you're afraid of and you realize that it wasn't that bad after all? The blocks look so much better without all that extra background on each one, and they are easier to mix up and rearrange with the pieced blocks now that they are all the same size.
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| Cute Little Quilt Blocks Survived Their Trimming! |
I went ahead and trimmed all of them; I was on a roll.
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| Slice, Slice, Slice... |
Had to include this photo -- the diagonal threads were especially helpful in lining up this particular block:
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| Diagonal Threads Very Handy for Positioning |
Okay, so after trimming all of these blocks and sleeping on it, I did have one additional idea in the morning. The Odif Grippy Spray reduces the slipperiness of the acrylic ruler, but it's still possible for it to shift during cutting, especially when the appliqué is multilayered or dimensional. I think I could be just as accurate but even safer in future if, instead of slicing with my rotary cutter, I used a chalk wheel like this one that I got from JoAnn's ages ago to mark the cutting line and then actually cut just inside the chalk line with scissors.
So there, that's the end of my saga! Ten thousand words and fifty photos to explain that I finished one quilt block and did some squaring up on the others. I'm about to head to the sofa to cuddle up with my sweetie and my hexagon EPP rosettes. My goal for this week will be to prep and stitch the second "Four Little Stars" block, which might be the last one for Month Two in the Stonefields BOM project. There's a lot going on with the remodeling of our home right now, too, but we're currently in the My-God-What-Have-We-Done-Will-It-Ever-Be-Right stage and I don't feel like writing about any of that!
I'm linking up with some of my favorite linky parties:
MONDAY
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Musings at Songbird Designs
TUESDAY
To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
FRIDAY
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre
Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty
TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday
SUNDAY
Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué
Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts
Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework
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