Eight-Pointed Star

What a treasure, Lia. I don't think you've said whether you intend to gently display this beauty or if you would like to pass it on to someone in years to come. Either way, perhaps you'd want to do a history label of the quilt and gently handstitch it to the back. There are a few things here that we need to label, regretfully none of them a quilt, but we have great grama's wash bowl and pitcher, a pair of bookends that are a couple of hundred years old and a very few other things that we hope would be kept instead of tossed or sold at a garage sale. No guarantee, of course, that your precious quilt won't wind up wrapped around a refrigerator in the back of a pickup truck but at least she could ride with dignity. Polly

"Julia Altshuler" We are now in possession of a quilt made by Jim's grandmother. She

Just talking to myself here but I do that some. If you decide to print a label for your quilt, I can happily recommend Printed Treasures. Of course, you could hand embroidery the whole thing but probably not. If you use a fabric sheet for the label, you will make the project much kinder to yourself if you will frame it with a quilt fabric. Those printed sheets are really tough to attach with handsewing. Polly

On the last page of Ruby McKim's "101 Patchwork Patterns" is Blazing Star, looks exactly like what you describe. This is a Dover reprint of a 1931 book. Roberta in D

"Julia Altshuler" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:0_CdneDOwP2LZKPVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

Like this one:

Hanne > On the last page of Ruby McKim's "101 Patchwork Patterns" is Blazing Star,

I hadn't thought of a label, but you're correct that one is in order. I hadn't thought of how to display it either. That's something of a sore subject around here. I'd like to put things on the walls, quilts or paintings or shelves, but Jim doesn't want to display anything until we've painted, and we can't paint until we've redone the floors. Floors shouldn't be done before paint, and there's the addition to be thought of which can't be done until we've torn down the crumbling doorless garage. For that reason, we can't do landscaping, and landscaping should be done after exterior paint. Oh my, you did get me started.

I've learned that the farm where Jim's mother grew up didn't have electricity until the mid 1930s when she was in her teens. They carried water for cooking from the well. No electric pump. They bathed in water from a cistern. There was a handpump on rudimentary pipes for that. It changes my picture of things. My parents were poor growing up in that period too, but they were city folk. They had no nice furniture or dishes or quilts to pass along, but they did have good city public schools (including high school), electricity and heat in tiny apartments, and quality entertainments in the form of free performances in public parks and a great public library system. Contrast that with the rural equivalent which included beautiful china , silver plate serving dishes, hand stitched quilts-- and daughters who thought nothing of carrying water from a well, picking berries and milking cows. There's a lot to think about here.

--Lia

Ooh, thank-you. I'll be on the look-out for it. I can figure out how to draft and recreate it myself, but it would be such fun to see the instructions that Jim's grandmother might have used. In fact, I'm really thinking about recreating this quilt. It's so different from my usual style-- and so pretty.

--Lia

That's it! (How did you do that? I googled under all the names I found and didn't find it. Did you picture the block from my description and remember having seen it?)

In the picture, there 4 colors: yellow, green, red and white. In my example, the center star is yellow. The green parallelograms are white. The red outer points are yellow. And the background is white again.

Everyone, in lieu of my being able to post a picture, take a look at the Blazing Star at the above url and picture it in creamy white and buttery yellow.

--Lia

Lia,

Is this it?

That's it! Thank you for that visual. I want everyone to be able to see the quilt I'm talking about.

I'll have no trouble drafting it. Even before I was home and had my quilting books and graph paper, I was drawing the block on notebook paper and seeing how it fit together. To make it, I'd sew 2 strip sets of a white and yellow stripe, put them wrong sides together, and cut on the angle using the 45 degree line on my ruler. Sewing those together would give me the 8 diamonds. I don't see how to do it without setting in seams. On the other hand, while most of us avoid set-in seams where we can, they're not impossible or anything. I am capable of doing them when I want to.

The cool thing about the 2-color variation on the block is the way the star becomes both subtle and distinct. You just have the yellow star floating in a sea of white.

Can we call it Nellie's Star instead of Lia's? It's more important to me to honor the original maker. My next step is to make some guesses as to where Nellie got the pattern. She might have gotten it from the publications others have mentioned. She might have known how to make stars in general but dreamt up that particular one herself.

--Lia

Rose > Lia,

Howdy!

Like the center of a L> Hanne Gottliebsen wrote:

Here's what Ruby has to say about it:

"There are ever so many quilt patterns, but none more charming tan this shaded eight-point one often called Blazing Star. Eight little diamond-shaped four-patches are pieced and set together with background triangles to form the block. Any grouping of colors may be used, and a third color, as lighter yellow or pale green with the above plan of yellow and orange could be used instead of the white diamonds. (Directions call for cutting 8 orange, 8 yellow and 16 white diamonds, with white background.) With seams added to the cutting patterns here given the block finishes about 13 1/2 inches square, or without seams added, 12 to 12 1/2 inches. This quilt sets together with alternate plain blocks, 21 plain blocks, and is 6 blocks wide by 7 blocks long plus a 2-inch border which makes it finish about 80 by 93 inches. It requires 1 yard orange, 1 yard yellow and 6 1/2 yards white. Allow one yard extra of orange for the border."

Roberta in D

"Julia Altshuler" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:wIydnf0gZM38zN3VnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

How amazing! Instructions that say the block finishes to *about* 13.5 or without seams added 12 to 12.5 inches >g< How refreshing! . In message , Roberta Zollner writes

Julia:

I don't know how Hanne did it, but I pulled my Jinny Beyer book (Patchwork Patterns) and discovered the name Blazing Star included in the description. I just hadn't gotten to the search yet, so I thank Hanne for saving us all the trouble! ;)

Pat: It is a real treat to read that old Ruby McKim book. Grab one if you see it in a second hand store. You will not want to use the instructions, but you will enjoy the glimpse into the past.

When I first started quilting back in the 70's, I bought the McKim book as one of my first collection pieces. As I became more "sophisticated" in my quilting, I got rid of that book because it was hand drawn and I was sure that none of the patterns would be accurate. Then I became more aware of those who had pioneered the art and had more appreciation as to what it took to put out patterns in those days. At our last guild book sale.....I bought it back. And so it goes.

Smile! . In message , KJ writes

I've just found it on Amazon UK! I expect it is the re-print, but that won't matter I hope.

Thanks everyone who recommended it. I ought to know more about the history of my much loved craft. . In message , Pat in Virginia writes