Stars for San Bruno #1 Design Process

You want to know my biggest problem with this quilt? I don’t have enough dark blue fabric. I have used EVERY scrap, except the tiniest (I mean, really, why bother?), for this project and I haven’t even gotten through the first quilt. I kid you not. Now I know that I never buy dark blue. No big loss, but, yes, I went to the fabric store to see what would work.

Design Toss
Design Toss

I tossed all the blocks out like this to see what inspiration I would get. It actually worked pretty well, because I could see some patterns start to emerge.

DH really liked the layout above and thought I should applique’ everything down like this. In an ideal world, with a fleet of sewing ladies, i would have done this, but I am still waiting for my fleet.

Design Toss Trimmed
Design Toss Trimmed

Once some patterns started to form, I began editing. Above is what is left after the first edit. The edited blocks will go into one of the other quilts. All the blocks will be used, don’t worry.

Border tryout
Border tryout

Sue’s blocks really wanted to be the border, so I tried them out in different ways. Tossing is a lot easier than sewing, so they won’t be as wonky as they seem here.

 

Line 'em Up
Line 'em Up

The editing is done, though I haven’t worked much on the bottom left hand corner and will need to pay some attention down there, so I started to line up the blocks and start filling in with pieces of fabric. I added some triangles to get some movement.

Sew 'em Up
Sew 'em Up

This is the top of SfSB#1. I have the border put together and am starting to sew rows together. It is harder to chunk with improvisational piecing, but I will do some chunking.

I really like how well the blocks fit together in terms of color.

Make 'em Fit
Make 'em Fit

You can see some chunking going on above. You can also see the neglected stepchild that is the lower left corner. I’ll get to it. The ultimate goal is to have a square or rectangle that is not to big, but will be big enough to snuggle with.

Lower Left Corner
Lower Left Corner

I thought of putting some coping strips in, but then I looked through the blocks again and found some smallish blocks (thanks, Diane!) that would fit and add interest to the bottom.

SfSB#1: Making progress
SfSB#1: Making progress

The piece is coming together.

Stars for San Bruno #1 Top sans Border
Stars for San Bruno #1 Top sans Border

Looks a little unfinished.

Adding Borders
Adding Borders

A little bit of breathing room around the edge should do the trick.

Do you like it?

 

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

8 thoughts on “Stars for San Bruno #1 Design Process”

  1. Are you crazy? “Do you like it?” you asked! How can one NOT like it?!? It is such a happy bright crazy fun quilt! What a challenge to put together. You ARE pulling it off nicely though! Great start!!!

  2. I have to admit that I was very doubtful that these quilts of such varied blocks could be pulled together into ONE quilt, let alone three. ‘Oh me, of little faith’–haha.

    I enjoyed all your pictures and description of your process. I think it is very cool!

    Mrs. K.

    1. I was right there with you, but the “toss” technique plus an offhand comment from DH really worked. We’ll see how the other two go. Thanks for reading.

    1. Thanks! This is what a quilt looks like when you don’t have a pattern. It might be at the quilter for the next meeting, but I’ll bring it before I send it off.

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