Among the Stars Again Show and Tell

We had Monday sewing yesterday, and I was so productive, but you'll hear about that tomorrow. 

Today, it's all about the show and tell from one of the sew-alongs at the Hobby Horse. We started the class in January and finished in July. There were some very new quilters in this group who did an AMAZING job at finishing their quilts!

Let's have a look. 

Here's the book we used. 

Among the Stars Again by Its Sew Emma

Here's something to think about -- I encourage the students to change up the pattern if there is something they don't like. Even though this is a 100% pieced pattern, they didn't disappoint. 

There were 16 people in the class, and I think we got an almost finished quilt or a finished quilt top from everyone! That's very impressive. 

First up is Cathie, who used a Christmas collection for her quilt. 

Cathie

Cathy tried a layer cake in a colorway that isn't her thing. She usually works with brights, and this is a great exercise to learn about color - move out of your comfort zone! She is working on the border. 

Cathy

Darlene is a brand new quilter and wanted to make her quilt larger, so she added an extra row and an extra block to each row. She's working on getting the final border on the other side and the bottom. 

Darlene

Donna made her quilt larger as well but only added an extra block to each row. Something you have to remember is the way the layout was done; it wasn't an easy thing to just add an additional block. The sashings were different widths, and the blocks were not all the same size, so it took a bit of figuring to make the extra blocks and rows happen. The original quilt layout was symmetrical, so adding the additional blocks and rows was tricky! 

Donna

Jennifer was another brand new quilter and chose to keep the center part like the book but changed the border. Can you believe these quilts? I'm so impressed that they are learning from Zoom without meeting in person and have achieved great pressing and piecing skills!

Jennifer

Judy also kept hers similar to the book and is working on that final border. 

Judy

Karen made her quilt larger by adding an extra block to each row (the original quilt is 64 by 84, in case you are wondering!) and then went crazy with that border! If ever you are going to do a border like this, it's best to follow Karen's example. The likelihood of those diamonds fitting exactly into each side, top, and bottom is pretty slim, so if you center them along the border, it looks fantastic every time!

Karen

Kelly is making TWO quilts from her blocks, but she hasn't finished sewing them together yet, and we are waiting to see how she arranges all the blocks into two quilts. 

Kelly blocks

Lucy also made extra blocks, and her top is almost together. Then she can work on that border. 

Lucy

Margaret was having fun with her blocks and did not need another large quilt, so she was making the blocks from kid prints and is going to make them into small quilts for the NICU units. How sweet is that? 

Some of Margaret's blocks

Maria also worked in a colorway that was NOT her thing. She started with a floral print as her focus fabric, but not much of it ended up in the quilt. 

Maria

Sandi, another relatively new quilter, also decided to make the quilt larger by adding extra blocks. 

Sandi

She did the spikey border as per the original, then went rogue. She added an extra strip of black to finish off that border nicely and added some white to the edges to make the quilt larger. 

The borders on Sandi's quilt

Shelly was a little bit behind in her blocks, but this is the colorway that she chose. 

Shelly

Val kept true to the book but also changed the last border. 

Val

And can you believe my quilt top was finished at the end of the class? Yep -- I'm trying to be very good about finishing up. 

My quilt

However, I will confess that when I saw what Sandi did with her quilt, I really liked the effect of making that border more pronounced by adding a little bit of the same fabric to the edges. Remember, that grey is the fabric I plan to use for the binding, and I didn't have enough. However, now that I have found the fabric and had some of it left, I could cut 2" strips and sew them on. 

The extra border added

I have to say that I like this version much better! Thanks to Sandi for that! See -- I learn as much from my students as they do from me!

If you counted, one person audited the class and didn't make any blocks! 

Now I need to contact the store that has the binding and get them to send me a bit more than I originally requested (good thing, the store owner couldn't attend to it until this week!), and then I'll have this one ready to quilt as well. More on that tomorrow!

Next week, I'll post ALL the classes and clubs I have on my list to teach in the fall of 2022 and 2023. There will likely be a few one-time or two-part classes that haven't been decided yet, but you'll get to see which sew alongs I'm teaching. All of them will be on Zoom! 

Some of you might be saying, I don't need another quilt, and that's probably true, but we are MAKERS, and makers gotta make! If you want to be part of the group and have fun because that's what it's all about -- I don't teach rocket science in my classes, and a lot of people know just as much as I do, but we're all together for fun! 

And if you don't need another quilt, do what Margaret is doing -- make blocks, change the size of the quilt, and donate them. One of the other ladies in this class will donate the entire top (or the finished quilt). She doesn't need another quilt, but she enjoys making it, and let's face it -- we have loads of fabric that needs to be dealt with. I think it's a fantastic win-win! 

Plus, making stuff is cheaper than therapy; we get to chat with each other, tell stories, and learn from each other! I love it!!

On that note, I'm out of here. I did not get out on my bike yesterday, and I'm not sure about today. I have some urgent paperwork to do and I'm on a roll in Studio B, and I don't want to interrupt the momentum!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!