Solids and Stars

I am hesitant to post this finished top, as I don't know if I'll keep it or gift it.  But I like to journal WHEN these things are made, and since I spent atleast 4 days doing LITTLE ELSE but working on this one, I want to get it entered into the blog archive BEFORE THE WEEK IS OVER.

I have been watching you tube videos from a young lady named Amanda Holmes, who lives in Australia.  She posted a video almost everyday during the month of May, due to the fact that she was home from work due to the pandemic.  Well, one day I spotted these star blocks on her quilt-room wall, and she mentioned them.  I was struck by the simplistic beauty of them.  She never showed the finishing of the quilt, but I caught a quick sighting of it when she did her yearly wrapup of quilts finished.   

I took her design, made my stars, making 3 more than her 9, and then wasn't happy with how traditional it looked.

 Her quilt had NO SASHING ANYWHERE, and as a square quilt, hers looked really good; but lengthening mine with an extra row changed that.  Something in me warred for a twist.  So I messed around and added a bit more of the solids, sortof off-kilter, and this is what I ended up with.  

                            I LOVE IT !

That's why I'm undecided on it's fate ! 

 ***NOTE:  In all of these photos of an entire top, there is a dark green printed star in the center of the bottom row.  Seeing the photos, I felt that it was too dark for the 'flavor' of the rest of the stars, so I replaced it.  The first photo is the finished layout.
  

Finished size of top currently is 52" x 72".  

EDIT:  I finished machine-quilting this quilt today, June 9, 2020.  Considering how to bind now.

I finished another quilt top ! Butterscotch and Stripes

EDIT:  

 Now bordered in the stripe.  Have enough left to bind it with same stripe.
And I want to note that I bought a used Q-Snap floor frame from Wanda C. (that's it overturned in the photo so that Marley doesn't use it as a hammock !)  Love it !

This top just came out of NOWHERE. 

A friend was placing an order with Connecting Threads a couple of months ago,and asked if I wanted to add something onto her order and share the postage.

I had been eyeing this green stripe, so I said, "yeh, get me 3 yards of this."

Well, at about the same time that it arrived, I spied this butterscotch-colored Waverly solid at our local Walmart.  I had meant to get some of it when several of their solids went to $1.00 per yard last summer, but I kept putting it off until I missed it.   Somehow this bolt missed the markdown and when I saw it, it only had 2 yards left on it !    So I bought the rest of the bolt.

I had NO PLAN to use the two fabrics together.  In fact, I was playing around with some other solids/polka dots and white-background prints, using this block. 

For some reason, (I think that I realized that I didn't have enough fabric like this to make anything of size), I switched and started making blocks with the butterscotch and my brown prints.  I tried a couple of layouts and really thought that the coloration looked RICH (still do!)

At first, I was laying the blocks out ON TOP OF the green striped fabric, to see how the combo worked.  I LIKED IT !

Then, after messing with design in EQ5, I changed to this 'trip around the world' shape.  I liked using the green stripe here, making it look recessed, and bringing the blocks forward.

Then at the end, I decided to use the rest of the butterscotch to give me big areas for quilting at the corners.

Based on 6-inch blocks, the finished size of the top right now is approximately 60 X 72 inches.  I don't know if I'll add borders to make it fit a bed or not.  Just letting it tell me what it needs, ya' know? Looking back at the first layout, I'm missing the big green feel.  Maybe I need to find a green that would work for a big outer border.

Quality control checked it out and gave it approval as is, but I'm still waiting for more input.

The color in the photos from different rooms really varies.  True color is somewhere inbetween.