Easy Piecing

--Meredith

I spent an evening recently with one of the owners of MD, Michelle. In her living room was a stunning patchwork pillow. When I asked about it, she mentioned using Nancy Zieman's Lone Star template and techniques and how easy it was.

Oh yeah...I had been eyeing that at Bolt! Tucked over with rulers, this unassuming wonder had caught me eye recently. I was especially intrigued considering how gift-making season is upon us. I have to be honest about myself as a quilter--I'm no math wizard. In fact, I downright hate all that nitty-gritty technical thinking and planning. If someone can do the hard part (aka math), well then all the better. With such a traditional shape, I think playing around with highly graphic or super contemporary prints help make this seem fresh. Bolt still has some of Jay McCarroll's Habitat line, which I think would be totally awesome and I am super tempted to pick a few cuts to make another. Because it was, in fact, easy piecing.

To start playing around, I pulled some solids from my stash in various shades of red and purple. I used this Kaffe Fassett print to help inform the selection. People (including myself!) love his sense of color and pattern and the selection at the store right now does not disappoint! 

Deciding layout is key, and for this particular exercise I plan to either lay matching colors together or color-wheel them around the star. To be determined! I figured I could start with the intial piecing and decide later.

There are multiple sizes on the templates so no need to choose one and trace. They're all right there every time! Cut a strip the dimension requested and use the template to mark and sub-cut into the size and shape needed.

This "no pivoting" method means constructing only with straight lines. As with all quilting, seam allowance and proper pressing are key to ensuring seam lines meet up.

I'm hoping this will be worthy enough to give to either my sister-in-law or HER sister, both of whom I'll be seeing this holiday season. Maybe I'll love it so much, it'll stay on my couch!