Ruth finally makes last year's Sparkling stars quilt

[SewRuthieSews]

I am committing here to making last year's Sparkling stars quilt.

So far I just have piles of coloured fabrics for the different blocks, but its a start!

[Iminei]

FAB U LOSA!!!!

Looking forward to pics and questions...

In my defence I havent yet quilted mine but I HAVE completed Silver roses quilt and am starting Heathies quilt and am having to work too ... which has put me a bit out of sorts !

Maybe we will quilt together? ... like we did last summer ... Lets quilt together, like we did last year .... Oh Oh Oooohhh!

[SewRuthieSews]

The red and dark pinks are not looking promising but the other colourways are good.
Some of my scraps are too small for anything much.

Might start with the yellow blocks aka citrine

[SewRuthieSews]

For the Citrine block I have these options for yellow


I need 3 yellows
Medium  (M)
Dark (D)
Light (L)
so think I might skip the floral (scraps from a dressmaking project) and use the other 3.

I can't seem to do suitable reds for the Ruby, but could go more pink with these options


For this one I'd need
a Dark (DK)
a Medium (M)
and
a Medium Light (ML)

So might work if I skip the floral

[Deafoldbat]

@SewRuthieSews Probably wise to omit the large yellow roses unless you are going to cut only the bits of the print that are the right shade. If you cut windows in a piece of paper the size and shape of the pieces of the pattern, you can see what a fabric will look like cut up - sometimes quite different from what you were expecting.

[SewRuthieSews]

Yes the large yellow floral seems to be left from a dressmaking project and has strange shaped scraps, I'll use that one and some other plain yellow scraps for my test square with another dark bg fabric.

[SewRuthieSews]

OK, now thinking about Background fabric.

I'd suggest a pure colour; black if you must or a very, very dark blue/red/green/grey/purple or a bright white !

I am wondering if this reads as dark enough?


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Updated to add that I don't think it does, so will overdye with some more black to get something which more resembles a Makower Spraytime fabric.
I already have the fabric and the dye so may as well make use of it.

[Iminei]

Regarding the yellow floral ... I like it IF you have enough to fussy cut.

Citrines do have striations through them and lots of caramel colour.



I dont like the polka dotted(?) fabric in the pile ... its too regular a pattern.

[SewRuthieSews]

Regarding the yellow floral ... I like it IF you have enough to fussy cut.

Citrines do have striations through them and lots of caramel colour.

I dont like the polka dotted(?) fabric in the pile ... its too regular a pattern.

Hmm I'm not sure that I do have enough of the floral and I just cut some of it up for my sample block.

The one that looks polka dotted is actually a honeycomb pattern called 'Bee Happy' by Fabric Freedom, I thought the 6 sided shapes looked quite like little gemstones, but maybe it doesn't work from a distance.

[Iminei]

Nice rich colour tho' and as youre discovering the hardest part of any quilt is choosing the fabrics (and the layering  ) 

[SewRuthieSews]

My sewing table is now covered in bits of yellow (and some more orange) fabrics most of which won't work, once I've put away the ones which don't work at all I'm left with a very pale yellow, a mid yellow with pinkish bits and a small geometric gold print.



from top to bottom
very pale yellow
the fabric I picked previously for the Light
a yellow with pinky bits
egg yoke yellow with gold bits
the honeycomb fabric I picked previously for the Mid
the I picked previously for the Dark
the floral which is the right colours but very odd shaped scraps

The yellow and gold one is a possibility I suppose, though only 13 x 16 inches so not enough fabric.

From your MEDIUM fabric cut SIX 3" Squares - You are going to be making FIVE of these blocks in total
So need 30 3 inch squares - out of 12 x 15 I'd only be able to get 20 3 inch squares.

[Iminei]

You could always swap the citrine with one of the other gemstones that doesnt have quite as many blocks ...

If I recall correctly the Citrine and Ruby both have 5 blocks, The Aquamarine, Amethyst and Sapphire have 4 blocks and the Emerald has only 3.

So you could choose to make the citrine coloured block in the Emerald pattern or just swap the numbers ... Citrine 3, Emerald 5.

[SewRuthieSews]

Yes I could do.
I notice that the Emerald is a little different in that it uses 4 fabrics

Dark Green (Dk G)
Mid Green (Md G)
Light Green (Lt G)
Bright Green (Bt G)

I am working on my sample for the Citrine at the moment (not using my planned fabrics).

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Updated to add I suspect @Iminei that you meant just to make 3 blocks not 5 and transpose them with the Emerald in the final layout, not make them up using the pattern for the Emerald.

So far I have made the corner block for my test Citrine block. Clearly doing the whole quilt top is going to take a while, like the rest of the year!

[Iminei]

You could do either but my original thought was make 3 Citrine blocks and 5 Emerald blocks ... whether you change the patterns or not is up to you.

As long as you have two sets of 5 blocks, three sets of 4 blocks and one set of 3 blocks the layout will still work.

[SewRuthieSews]

As long as you have two sets of 5 blocks, three sets of 4 blocks and one set of 3 blocks the layout will still work.

OK that's really good to know, thank you!