Urban Stars

I started the HST quilt in August this year.
I wanted to try out my Baby Go cutter and decided to try cutting half square triangles for a quilt.

I change my cushions/pillows in my living area nearly as often as I change my hair colour. Maybe not quite that often but I think a change is as good as a holiday.  I like having a neutral living area so that I can change my cushions and the look for minimal cost and play out all my colour fantasies. I found some really nice cushions/pillows at a local store that went very nicely with some I already had.  I ordered a fat quarter bundle of Hometown, and then rummaged through my very significant (according to Shay) stash to find some co-ordinating fabrics.
After playing with Quilt Pro I finally fluked working out how to use it and came up with a repeating star using half square triangles. Something nice and easy that wouldn't tax my brain.


I'm over the moon with how this finished up. I love the colours and the subtle star pattern.

When I posted the photos on Flickr there were some great ideas suggested for a name, which I used to help me come up with Urban Star.  I love the urban edginess of the colour palette and the fabrics I've chosen. I especially love text fabric and there are quite a few used in this quilt. The overall look kind of reminds me of city buildings both modern glass and steel and old sandstone and marble.

As usual I had no idea how I was going to quilt it. I really do need to think more about the quilting in the initial design stages rather than leaving it to when it needs to be quilted.  I didn't want to quilt it by following the diagonal lines, I really wanted to do straight line vertical quilting but was very afraid to do it in case it looked crap. I spent hours looking at quilted quilts on flickr and on blogs, but could never find anything that looked like what I wanted to do. Eventually I just went for it and I'm very very glad I did as I really like the look of the "organic" vertical lines.  Most of the quilting lines are approximately an inch from the seam lines and there are areas where the quilting lines are further apart.


All crinkly after a spin in the machine and the tumble dryer. I threw in 4 colour catchers just in case. One came out a soft rusty brown colour, two a beige colour and one off white. Strange, but I'm pleased I used them.


The binding is Hometown City Streets in Mist, I love the soft colours in this one. I wanted the binding to be subtle and I think this fabric works really well, it's also a nice contrast to the backing fabric which is a Lecien Basics.

Pattern - my own using Sawtooth Star and sashing
Fabric - Hometown by Sweetwater plus various other fabrics from my stash. Not 100% sure what the off white was that I used as it was in my stash. I think it's a Kona solid.
Backing - Pieced using left over HST's from the front and Lecien Basics dots a Kona solid and Mist Textured Solid from Hometown.
Binding - Hometown City Streets in Mist, strips cut 2 inches wide for a narrow binding.
Machine quilted
Size - 53" x 53"



My 10th finish for the year!!!!!!!!