Lots of Stars for Maja

The years 2017 and 2018 have been a wonderful experience for me after I joined the Rakish Needle Round Robin. Six European ladies have contributed to each others quilts, and quilt projects have been going back and forth in the postal services between Germany, Great Britain, Poland and Norway.

This is the sixth and last quilt I received to work on. It belongs to Maja in Poland, and she wants a quilt full of stars. The picture above shows the starting point I received in May.

I have to admit it took quite some time before I started working on extending the quilt top.There were so many stars, how should I add more?

I finally decided to add a row on top and one at the bottom. The quilt top is really scrappy from before, and I can assure you that I added to the scrappyness.

 

I gathered lots of star fabrics I had in my stash, used extra stars that was left from the other participants, and made only two traditional stars and a wonky one that can be seen in the top row. 

The quilt top was packed and sent to Poland in August and Maja has already received it. Feedback from her is that she loves it in all its scrappyness.

It is exciting to wait for my own quilt which is currently in Germany. Don't stress Katrin, I have all the time in the world!

Starry Sky for Karin

The Rakish Needle round robin quilt top that belongs to Karin in Germany arrived at my home in November last year. Katrin added the large piece on the right with the big planet and Sputnik. I used quite some time wondering what to add to the top. Maja came up with the first idea without even knowing about it. She designed a paper pieced star that I felt fitted perfectly to the scene.

This is my version of Maja's 'Christmas Star' that I blogged about here , I had fun making this beautiful star. It is kind of a nice coincidence that I am sending the quilt top to Maja who will finish the last round of the Rakish Needle Robin before the top is returned to the owner, Karin.

This is how the star looks inserted into the quilt top.

When I was at my quilt guild meeting in January I showed some progress photos of the top to a few ladies. One of them suggested to make something from Star Wars to put into the quilt. I searched the net and found this little beauty designed by Quiet Play. My version of the Death Star fits perfectly into the quilt top.

Then there was the last blue space on the quilt that had to be filled. I decided that a planet would be perfect, and one of the most visual planets is Saturn with its characteristic rings. The Saturn design shown here is my own creation.

I had the perfect fabrics, both for the planet body and the rings. The rings are bias tape of the same fabric in different colors, and it looks as if there are rocks and debris swirling around the planet.

Unfortunately I didn't take any progress pictures when making this. The way I made it was to cut out the planet body first, then I pressed a quarter inch seam allowance around the edge and glued the planet to the background with a few drops of water soluble glue in the center. After having made the bias tape I started with the darkest ring and glued it in place, and tucked the ends under the planet. Then I carefully stitched down both edges of the bias.

After all the rings were stitched down I trimmed the edges of the bias and sewed the planet body down by hand with a matching thread color.

The completed top after my round has gotten really big, there's hardly enough floor space to show it off.

My son helped me in the photo shoot outdoors. The outer space has never looked this good, thanks to the contribution of Karin, Rachel, Ileana and Katrin. Now it will be packed up and sent to Maja in Poland and she will do her magic on the quilt top before it is returned to the owner, Karin.

I am looking forward to seeing all completed tops sometime later this year. It will be a gorgeous display in the end!

Round Robin Quilt for Rachel

One thing I realized, is that I have never blogged about the previous quilt top I worked on in this round robin. This is Rachel's top. I added the grey staggered border around the teal.

I love the movement and contrast my border makes to the teal and yellow inside. In the corners I added paper pieced arrows of my own design. The dark red border on the outside was sewn on as a protection for a somewhat fraying fabric in the corner blocks. Let's see if this border will be kept in the top, or maybe the next person in line has other ideas! Maja is free to choose.

This quilt is going to look gorgeous in the end! I have really enjoyed being a part of this Rakish Needle Robin!

Maja's Christmas Star

My dear friend Maja of Betyipiernaty created this beautiful Christmas Star foundation paper pieced pattern just in time for Christmas. It is a free pattern, so just go over to her blog to download it. She has made a few versions in beautiful color combinations, but in my case I chose a different one. The star stands out dramatically against the dark blue sky.

The star is approximately 12" in diameter once finished. I used the Set in Circle tutorial by Angela Pingel to put the star inside a square block. The star will be inserted in a bigger project, eventually.

The star looks a little bit like a Poinsettia in this picture. The pattern is accurate and easy to make, just a few y-seams when assembling. A truly beautiful pattern, Maja!

Katrin's Round Robin Quilt

This year I joined my very first Round Robin, the Rakish Needle, hosted by Katrin in Germany. Six European ladies will contribute in making six very different quilts throughout the year. It was exciting and a little bit scary to commit to such a project, I didn't know what to expect, but Katrin is a good organizer and she is very helpful and keeping us in line. On her blog she has assembled a block parade  that shows the starter blocks for all the six participants in Rakish Needle Round Robin.

I was the lucky one to to receive Katrin's BIG starter block, the compass rose block measured approximately 31" x 32". She envisions "jewelled adventure galore on a low volume background. What unknown lands will we discover, what weird creatures and which magical myths?" That is a mouthful, but I already had plenty ideas before the block arrived.

She also included this fish block in the starter package, and I chose to include it in my round, because it fit so well with the rest of my blocks.

The first block I made was this cute, little crab. I was inspired from a picture I found, and the block is a combination of foundation paper piecing and ordinary piecing. The block is 5" finished, and it is the first time I have constructed a paper piecing block myself. The teal crab got accompanied by an orange/yellow one in my final work, just so it wouldn't be lonely.

I also discovered the Wee Animal Quilt made by danimiller.com . I fell in love with the simple shapes made with the Mini Quick Curve Ruler. It is obvious that the above creature is a lobster, right?! The claws that are tied down with a jeweled "ribbon" of Mostly Manor fabric by Victoria Findlay Wolfe makes this my favorite curved block.

Here are all the blocks I made for this round of the Rakish Needle. The curved piecing of the teal fish and purple sea lion was fun and fast.

The first test layout of the blocks. (Oops, the compass rose was turned the wrong way here, that was fixed later). Of course the blocks needed some adjustments to fit in, my own background fabric plus a few pieces of Katrin's provided fabrics were added.

Here's the right column with the sea lion and crabs.

And above the bottom row with my teal fish, red lobster and Katrin's lovely pieced fish.

This concludes my round in the Rakish Needle Round Robin. The piece has grown to be approximately 39" x 40". Katrin indicated that she wants to use the finished quilt on her bed, and big is beautiful!

I may have gone a little bit overboard with my addition to the quilt top, but I had so many ideas! I had to restrain myself not to make it bigger; I have to let the other participants be creative, too!

Finally, a picture of the quilt top in the morning sun on my deck. The piece will soon be on its way to Poland and Maja for the next installment. I hope Katrin will be pleased with it in the end!

Keep on sewing!