Monday mystery solo robin

May 25, 2020

It seems Monday has arrived again. It is almost like clockwork or something. I didn’t manage to finish last week’s border yesterday, though I did finish the pictorial center piece, which I think has over 110 pieces for an 8″ block. Not hard but a bit time consuming. Also very well worth the effort. As today is a bank holiday I plan to work on that border today. I have two or three options for the rest of it. I have met the terms of the technique so I could fill in with plain black, but that really isn’t the plan. I could applique the rest of that border. That would be easy and I admit is sort of tempting, but I really don’t like raw edge applique. Or I could go with the most complex and least predictable, most experimental option and piece it. Take your bets which way I am about to go. I am planning to try 2 test blocks of the thirs option. If they work the way I want I will carry on. If not I may change direction. Which I am sure I will complain and moan about. Mind you if the pieced option does work I have a plan for a full sized quilt based on this border so I would be thrilled to have it be successful.

I suppose it is time to learn our doom for the coming week. OK I admit I love this part, I just don’t always love the answer. Those rectangles were hard. This week our technique is,

Stars

Our border size is,

add 4″ to at least 2 adjacent sides of your quilt.

Hmm, well yay stars really fit in with my galaxy feel so that’s good. 4″ however is quite tight, maybe more 3″ friendship stars. Oh I know I could applique stars on, see about on how much I love raw edge applique. I could just stitch in constellations, that might look quite fun. Be a pig to quilt, but that would be a problem for later. My later self would have to deal with that. I think even I am sane enough not to try mariners stars in that space, although I suppose 3/4 ones around the corners might be OK. Ooooh improv stars, the little irregular ones could be fun, not sure it they would fit the scale of my other pieces but then technically neither would the sewn ones and I was OK with that. I suppose I could really leave my comfort zone and paint the stars on. Not sure how well that would work on black but it would give me scope for a lot more definition and detial in the small border. For those of you who don’t know me well, I am not a fan of paint on quilts either. It’s the change in feel of the fabric and the fact it feels too much like a totally differnt craft to me. Well safe to say I have some ideas for this week. Maybe it is good I have the last border to work on while I think these through.

If you are just joining us, yes you can start here. No it doesn’t matter at all that you have missed a few weeks. Make (or find) a starting block with straight sides and over 9″ on at least one axis. Then pick a set of instructions and follow along. I am sure 4″ of stars around your starting block would look great. If you are playing along, please please send me some pictures, I really would love to see how other people are interpreting these instructions. You would be amazed how different the quilts will turn out based on the choices made.