February, A New Month to Enjoy

Good morning!

Last month, we took a long car trip to Corpus Christi, TX to visit family, and while I rode along, I took a pad of graph paper, and drew out plans for some doll quilts I'd like to make in the future.  Today, I'm sharing the plans and pictures of the first one I made after we returned home.

Here's the drawing for a doll quilt. 

It is a 9x11 inch quilt with six small stars.  The stars finish at 2 inches, and I planned the corners to gently curve, as I've seen on some old doll quilts.  I imagined it in all one color stars on a shirting background.  Wouldn't cheddar stars be great?

Well, I've been cutting and organizing scraps into shoe boxes full of small squares.  I pulled out a shoebox and began laying out bits of fabric.  This box had half square triangles in it too.  Since it was easy to use 2 hsts instead of a flying geese block, six stars were planned out on a piece of flannel, and then carried over to the machine, and sewn together quite quickly.  The box had only unfinished 1.25 inch pieces in it, so I revised the quilt size to fit the squares I was using.  If you think of the star as divided into a 4 x 4 graph grid, the center is a 2 x 2 grid, the four outside corners are 1 x 1 grids, and all the rest can be 8 hsts, or else 4 flying geese.  Hope this makes sense.  So I used 2 x 2 inch squares for middle of star, eight 1.25 x 1.25 hsts, and four corners of shirting 1.25 x 1.25 inches.  It would have been a lot harder to make if the hsts weren't already made.  I used whatever I had, trying to get a star in mostly the same color.

When the top was together and I added the borders, I quilted it and added the binding, completely forgetting I had planned on rounded corners.  Oh well, that's what happens when you are old....you forget some original plans.  I do like it.  It measures 13 x 17 inches.

But I still wanted to make it as drawn up - with rounded corners, and in the smaller size with one color stars.  So, since we had a short car trip coming up last Sunday, I took my little lap cutting board, and a bag of scraps with me.  I cut enough blue and shirting fabric to make six sets of four flying geese using the "no waste flying geese method".  You can google it and get the instructions.  I also cut the centers for the stars, 1.5 x 1.5 unfinished size.

When home, I cut the star corners, and decided to cut them 1/4 inch larger than needed.  This helps me in two ways.  1) Making them a tad bigger helps me pick them up and place them while sewing, and 2) when trimming the completed stars, it gives me a little wiggle room in case my seams are a little crooked or not exactly 1/4 inch.  So the corners are cut 1.25 x 1.25 (and finish at .5 x .5)  The flying geese finished size is 1.5 x 1 inch.

Here's a picture showing one trimmed star and 3 untrimmed stars.

Here's the quilt top, ready to quilt:

I put a round glass on the corner and drew a pencil line to get the corner curve.  The binding is cut on the bias to help with the curves.  I didn't follow the written directions for borders, just eye-balled it on what looked good.   It will measure 10 x 12 inches when finished.

If you make a little quilt with these instructions (any size) I would love to see it.  
Hope you are having a nice start to February too!  Spring is coming!