What else can you do with the Stars Collection?

So many ideas and things to do… but not always as much time as I would like to get them all done! You’re probably in the same boat, so I’ve been working on some smaller projects to showcase the designs from the Stars Collection.

Stars Table Runner

The Stars Table Runner has 3 large blocks (finished size 16″x16″) and 4 small blocks (finished size 8″x8″). The overal finished size is 22.5″ x 68″.

The table runner looks like it is “on-point”, but the absence of setting triangles on the sides and corners makes piecing really easy.

In a nutshell, here are the instructions for creating this quilt:

- Cut 3 squares, each 13″ x 13″. Embroider a large star in the center. Trim to 12.5″ x 12.5″

- Cut 4 squares, each 7″ x 7″. Embroider a medium star in the center. Trim to 6.5″ x 6.5″

From each of 3 colors, cut:

- 2 strips, 2.5″ x 12.5″ and 2 strips, 2.5″ x 16.5″

Stitch each set of strips to a large embroidered square, pressing seams away from the center square.

From each of 4 colors (or all the same), cut:

- 2 strips, 1.5″ x 6.5″ and 2 strips, 1.5″ x 8.5″

Stitch each set of strips to a small embroidered square, pressing seams away from the center square.

Layout the blocks, and then stitch together in rows.

An alternate colorway, featuring 6 point stars is shown here.

Click on any image to see a larger version of it!

It’s not highly visible in the photo, but if you ever get to see the table runners in person, you will note that the pink, 6 point, version, is finished with a piped facing, while the blue/green, 5 point, version, is finished with a simple facing. Usually I can figure most things out eventually, but how to achieve perfect inside corners for the piped facing eluded me (and still does!). So rather than have two “imperfectly” finished piped facings, I opted to eliminiate the piping on the second table runner.

Stars in a Circle

This circular quilt, 28″ diameter, was created as a traveling exhibit for AURIfil, my favorite thread company! If you are in Europe at one of the major quilt shows that AURIfil is attending, stop by to say “Ciao” to Alex and Stefano, and to see the quilt of course!

This quilt features 1 large star in the center, surrounded by various medium and small stars. The pink triangles around the center star are folded points that have been stitched into the seam. The quilt is finished with a simple binding, applied to the back of the quilt and finished from the front with a decorative blanket stitch.

Couldn’t resist showing you the back of the quilt! The backing fabric is one of Ricky Tims’ Rhapsodie Coloree fabrics, the batting is Dream Puff.

But it’s not on a quilt!

Purses and tote bags are ideal places to showcase your favorite star! This is a simple, boxy purse that I made with a large star on each side.

I don’t usually decorate my clothing, but I found a plain hoodie in Target (on the clearance rack no less!) and I couldn’t resist embellishing it with a couple of stars. Fusible water soluble stabilizer in the hoop (OESD Aquamesh Plus to be precise), and also on top of the area where the star would end up, gave me a nice firm foundation for the embroidery. Usually, I would place a fusible tearaway stabilizer on the back of the background fabric. In this case, I wanted to prevent the stitches from disappearing into the (soft and fleecy) fabric of the hoodie, so putting the fusible water soluble stabilizer on the top did the trick very nicely. I did prewash the hoodie first, and of course I washed it again after the embroidery was finished to remove all of the excess stabilizer. Then I added a few hotfix crystals to add a little extra sparkle!

Coasters, or Christmas ornaments? These stars have been quilted onto a circle of Floriani Stitch N Shape, a heavy interfacing reminiscent of Timtex. They could be used as coasters dotted around on a table, or stitch 2 together back-to-back and you have some beautiful and original Christmas ornaments – or everyday ornaments for that matter! Small and medium stars perform very nicely here.

That’s just the tip of the iceburg as far as ideas go. If you have used the designs from the Stars Collection in a project, I would love to see photos and share them with the world.

Monday August 31, 2009 at 7:40am saw me sitting on  a plane leaving  Phoenix, AZ and flying to Cleveland, OH. Why? To tape a 10 minute segment for Quilting Arts TV!

The last few weeks have been spent preparing for this major life event. I’ve never been on TV before, and despite watching shows from the previous series, I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into!

My brief – to demonstrate how to do embroidered applique. The best bit – I got to do it on one of the new Bernina 830 embroidery machines using the ever so large Jumbo hoop.

My plane landed at Cleveland Hopkins airport on time at about 20 minutes past 2pm. Down to the baggage claim to see my suitcase full of quilts sitting waiting for me. What a relief!

Since it hadn’t occurred to me until about 9pm on Sunday that I would need to find a way to get myself from the airport to the studio, and the shuttle was fully booked, I found myself taking a taxi – which turned out to be cheaper!

4pm found me arriving at the Beachwood Studio, met at the front door by Katherine Lamancusa, assistant to the producer and person to turn to if you needed just about anything. Then into the Green Room – which really is very green!

Close to the end of the day, everyone there had already done their thing, so the atmosphere was cheerful and relaxed. Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero was a familiar face, and also rushing out the door so not much time to do anything other than say “Hi! Bye!”. It did mean that she freed up a table, so I got to empty all my stuff out and start to get organized. That’s my green suitcase in the center of the pic, with my table in the back right hand corner.

Jeanne Delpit from Bernina USA was also a familiar face and voice, and had a friendly hug to welcome me. Getting busy turned out to be a really good thing, so after unpacking I turned my attention to preparing fabric for the project I was going to demo on TV.

I had decided to use the designs from my newest embroidered applique collection, the Hearts CD, stitched out on Silk Dupioni with Aurifil Cotton Mako 50 weight thread.

I hadn’t decided what colors I was going to use, but finally chose  turquoise silk for the background, pink silk for the heart, with lime green, turquoise, orange and magenta for the thread.

Everything was finally cut, stabilized and ready! Time to stitch out a complete heart so that it would be “finished” and waiting in the jumbo hoop, for the end of my demonstration.

Pokey Bolton, the host of Quilting Arts TV was finally done with her part of filming for the day, and was also busy in the Green Room, working on a project. And borrowing my rotary cutter!

Everything finally finished and ready, time to go to the hotel. Teri Harris Lucas was also there a day early, and she had a car, and she was staying in the same hotel! So off we went together, enjoying a quiet dinner together at PF Chang’s across the street from the hotel.

Tuesday morning at 8am saw me in makeup getting ready to go on TV! I was the first guest of the day, but Pokey had been hard at work already, taping all the intros and exits for the series. She wears a different outfit for each show, so it seemed like she was back in the Green room every few minutes for a change of clothes.

And then it was my turn!

First to get the Bernina 830 onto the set. Jeanne took the sewing machine, Katherine was in charge of the embroidery module. It really is a big machine – especially when you have to move it!

Have you ever noticed that the people who are usually behind the camera don’t like to have their photo taken? Ray was the camera guy filming to the right of the set – at least from my perspective of being on the set! Billy is the floor director, equally shy when it came to having his photo taken!

Jeanne set up the 830 while Katherine helped me to bring all of my “stuff” onto the set. Where to put everything was the big question of the moment! I’m very glad that I had way too much stuff to show off. A lot of it didn’t appear – but Kathie Stull, the producer, helped us to choose the things that would show off best.

I was surprised how dark the rest of the studio is, and also how quiet! I think there were two camera guys, Ray off to the right of the set, and another guy straight in front doing all the closeups – from above! Billy, the floor director, was off to the left with a monitor to show what was being filmed. I think there was someone lurking at the back of the room, but have no idea what they were doing. A sound guy appeared a couple of times – first to get me hooked up with a mic, and then after we started filming to adjust the sound so that I could be heard!

Pokey was wonderful – very cool, calm and collected! Always there with the perfect question to move the demo along. All in all, this was about the fastest 10 minutes I have ever experienced – apart from the eternity it took for the machine to stitch out the placement line for the heart. Was it enough to give people a good view of what I do? Time will tell! Given that I have a lot to say about how to do embroidered applique, I don’t think I’ve ever been so tongue-tied before. Maybe there will be a next time – in which case now I know what to do – and it wasn’t quite so scary after all!

All classes were lots of fun, with lots of happy students! The Dudes filled their classroom to capacity for Quilted All Over and had one student who was unable to make it in. No Hands Piped Binding this afternoon had my first Mother/Son duo taking a class together.

I got to the gym twice this week – and would have made it a third time on Saturday morning, except a friend called just as we were about to leave and suggested a playdate at the train park (the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, AZ). We decided to take advantage of the cool after the previous night’s storm to go and play – although it did get a little steamy later in the morning!

One more week to go before heading out to Cleveland on August 31 to tape a 10 minute segment for Quilting Arts TV on September 1. And so much still to be done!

The quilting on the Hearts quilt is finished – it’s now just waiting to be bound. Pam and I were able to stitch out all 6 of the small hearts and 2 each of the 6 medium sized hearts in a very productive day on Tuesday. So this week there is a lot of finishing to do, as well as quilting the Jewels in Silk quilt.

Classes coming up this week are part 2 for both Digitizing for Beginners at Sew from the Heart on Wednesday, and Quilted All Over (peacock feathers) at 3 Dudes Quilting on Thursday. Wednesday evening I get to go to Sew from the Heart for the second time that day to give all the staff an overview of what version 6 of the Bernina Embroidery Software has in store.

And not to be forgotten – I need to write the directions for the project I will be presenting on Quilting Arts TV!

The girls are back in school and loving it; the Calico Cutups in El Mirage had fun with Spirals and are looking forward to doing Feathers in early Fall; Nina McVeigh and Embroidery TnT were wonderful; and Bernina Embroidery Software v6 is packed with new features!

Jewels in Silk is now pieced and waiting to be quilted. Taking a sharp photo of the silk has been somewhat challenging, but I had some success while the quilt top was hanging at Sew from the Heart during Embroidery TnT on Wednesday.

It wasn’t until this afternoon that I got to work on quilting the batik Hearts quilt, and that only because my class at 35th Ave Sew and Vac was cancelled. After some in-the-ditch stitching to anchor the quilt (and get rid of most of the pins I used for basting) I started to do the background quilting around the actual hearts. I love the way the embroidered applique “pops” up when the background has been quilted. It really adds a stunning finishing touch to the embroidery.

So that’s what happened last week! Now for what’s in store this week.

Going to the gym and taking a daily vitamin supplement have been sadly neglected during the summer months and I’m beginning to feel the effects. Now that the girls are back in school, getting back into some sort of routine will be much easier. And when I take good care of myself, my quilting improves! So my aim for this week is to visit the gym at least 3 times, if not 4, and to start taking my vitamins again. Even if I have to come up with some sort of chart to remind myself to do it!!!

Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday are all teaching days. Digitizing for Beginners part 1 at Sew from the Heart on Wednesday. This group will get a sneak peak of v6 of the Bernina Embroidery Software, so I’m very excited about that and hope that they will be too. Quilted All Over part 1 (Spirals) at 3 Dudes Quilting on Thursday. This is always a fun class – I love to see the progress people make over the 3 sessions. No Hands Piped Binding also at 3 Dudes Quilting is on Sunday. Another fun class, especially when people finally get how the binding comes together.

That leaves Monday, Tuesday and Friday for quilting and Saturday for having fun with the girls. Can I finish quilting the Hearts quilt this week? Time will tell! Given that I’m flying to Cleveland on August 31 to tape a 10 minutes segment for Quilting Arts TV on September 1, and I’m demonstrating how to do Embroidered Applique using my Hearts designs, the quilt had better be finished by the end of this week! Tuesday is going to be a marathon embroidery day, assisted by my friend Pam. The theory behind this is that if 2 of us can do all the embroidery I need for Quilting Arts TV in 1 day, then the rest of the next 2 weeks can be spent finishing it all off – mainly quilting.