Carlene Foster's Gallery : Eight-Pointed Star

One block wonder

Carlene Foster — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:03:26 GMT

This is a repeat of the same star block, just by using different corner pieces, they look totally different. Of course, it is me, so it is still scrappy. :) The small sashings bring your eyes out so that it looks like one star is framed in the middle of a bunch of x's. I just thought that was the appeal to this pattern...starting with one thing and ending up with something that appears much more complex than it is. Downfall to this pattern was that it called for 2 5/8 inch squares for the outer corners, and I was using scraps from 2 1/2 inch strips, so I lost most of my star points in the process. Even rounded off, I like them (although it obviously bugs me).

Amish with a Twist-BOM

Carlene Foster — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:21:56 GMT

My last two weekends have been consumed with the finishing kit for this quilt, including some applique along the edges. My sewing machine did not play well with the blanket stitch on these appliques, so I ended up unsewing them and doing them all by hand. I will really need to watch the quilting process to make certain that flowers and leaves get permenantly set, as I am not a proponent of hand stitching for heavily used items. I am just glad to say that this is done. The blocks were way too simple, some of the colors in this fabric line were really awful. We were supposed to go until May, and the BOM ended in February due to lack of continued interest. I would do the second Amish with a Twist, but not as a BOM. Just send the fabric and directions for me to do it at my own pace, and I'd be fine.

St. Louis Star #3

Carlene Foster — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:49:52 GMT

I did mention that I love this design, right? This was made with 8 inch finished stars, which I thought afterward were entirely too small (meaning, I didn't feel like making 50 of them to make a queen sized quilt). I put a 3 inch border of the background fabric around each star and set them on point to make them appear larger. :) Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

St. Louis Star #2

Carlene Foster — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 17:47:39 GMT

This is my second St. Louis Star quilt. The centers are fussy cut, and since there are only so many motifs available on one piece of fabric, there are some variations in the group. Different color pallate than the first, but equally visually interesting. The nice thing about the St. Louis Star is that there are no Y seams in the construction, although it certainly appears that there were several. I love it when someone figures out the easier way to do something for me ahead of time. :)

My first St. Louis Star Quilt

Carlene Foster — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:34:00 GMT

This is one totally versatile design and can be done in many different sizes and arrangements. I have done.....4? I saw this first published in a quilting mag and used my own red/green/black and wow fabrics. As it turned out, the original quilt was done in kind of a rusty brownish red and a kind of olive green. I took a class from the designer a couple of years later to learn how to do the glorified 9 patch. It was an experience I won't soon forget. :)

Sampling sampler quilts completed

Carlene Foster — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:04:25 GMT

This is how I finished the blocks into a completed quilt top. You would think I shouls be finished with these fabrics by now, right? I found another 4 yards of the wild rose in the house after I had ordered 3 more yards (that brought the total to 15 yards purchased outside the original finishing set for the original wildflower rose BOM. And, I find myself with a bunch of the other fabrics left as well. Might be a lap quilt or more left in this batch....we are beyond bonus. Now we are into the "challenge phase" of how to use up this fabric.

Scrappy stars

Carlene Foster — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 21:56:42 GMT

Never give me a batch of scraps and think I'm never going to use them...I find ways of putting them to some sort of use! Just need borders to finish this one. The star blocks finish at 8 x 8. I just used neutral sashings and scrappy cornerstones to keep the background from swallowing the stars.

Stonehenge BOM 2012 (full picture)

Carlene Foster — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:04:52 GMT

Daylight allows me to take a picture of the entire quilt, as long as it is not raining or the wind is not blowing excessively. A little wind today, but not so bad temp wise, and no additonal snow (yet) I love the full effect of this quilt....more than I liked some of the individual blocks. If you make this one, watch the color combinations. I had a couple of blocks that were brown on brown with the biggest contrast being another shade of brown. I substitued the orange to liven it up a little.

Marti Michel's Wild Rose BOM

Carlene Foster — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:45:38 GMT

This was the first BOM program I ever did. And, it was my first experience with Marti Michel's templates....which I have absolutely grown to love. I thought this fabric was soooooooooooo much a have to have because it still strikes me as being so feminine and beautiful. Two of my latest quilts were an effort to use up the additional fabric I had purchased from this line...when I like something, I tend to purchase in bulk, so it seems. I am proud to say my 3 large bags of fabric now fit into one bag. The color choices are waining, and soon there will only be a few scrapts to add to other quilts in the making. I still love this quilt, though.

Iowa Star Scrap Quilt

Carlene Foster — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:25:22 GMT

This was a pattern created by a native of Traer, Iowa. This is just up the road from my sister's house, and I didn't even know there was a quilt shop so close to her...guess where I am stopping my next trip? This is the kind of quilt you do when the partiallly used fq's and the scraps outnumber the full pieces. It used a lot of scraps, and a lot of those fq's that I just didn't know how I was going to use them anywhere...ever. Loved the effect....and there will never be another one exactly like this one...ever. Next one I make, I will keep the neutrals very light and not use so much yellow on a focal block.

When the stash and the pattern meet

Carlene Foster — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:35:57 GMT

I don't know where I got the brown art deco kind of fabric that is in this quilt. I only know that when I saw this pattern in a book, I had to make it. How it turned out that I had just enough of the brown to finish the quilt....call it fate, call it karma....it just happened. I think of my boys when I see this one.....it's a modern manly quilt to me. I was going to hang this one on the family room wall to liven up the space a little, but it hasn't made it there yet.

Sophia: Jinny Beyer kit

Carlene Foster — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:46:03 GMT

I bought this on one of Fons and Porters' kit sales. The picture online was nice, but the actual fabrics were striking. This is the Sophia design, done in the topaz colorway. This will be a favorite for a long time.

Bits and Pieces

Carlene Foster — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:33:41 GMT

I love brights, and I love scrappy. This pattern allowed me to use up some of my scraps and practice some new patterns. I think I needed this after a round of pastels and florals....

Deb's Flower Garden

Carlene Foster — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:07:07 GMT

This was a kit quilt that I absolutely had to have. Each of the red flower petals is a different fabric. The fabric itself had a lot of depth to it, so I kind of thought this was just a bit of overkill. I liked the use of the split border fabric. I guess I could say that the way the stem greenery was constructed reminded me of a Pam Bono design. I was glad when I finally just powered through to finish this one, as I got distracted away from the tedium after I had most of the cutting and individual components completed. This is a pattern that I am not thinking of returning to for quite some time.

St. Louis Star Table Runner

Carlene Foster — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:38:44 GMT

I had 3 stars leftover from my other Flourish projects, so I made a table runner just to make certain these choice pieces didn't end up in a pieced quilt backing later on. I'm thinking that since I always seem to have excess binding at the end of a project and usually manage to miscount blocks along the way anyway, this might be a small project I'll be doing more of with the leftovers. These table runners can also be used for festive dresser scarves, or instead of quilting, could be stuffed and used as a decorative pillow (with a few minor modifications). Creative juices are flowing........ :)