Spinning Stars




Mine  - the orange spikes will form further stars when other blocks are added.

 

















On Thursday I took a Quilters Guild class with Terence Gilbert who used to belong to a group I've been in for 15 years or so. They hold beginners classes from time to time and although they now include rotary cutting etc originally the emphasis was on drafting, templates and blocks. I always look back with gratitude to these classes as they underpin everything I do now though I rarely resort to templates. Did I just say that? - well I forgot I am making my farmers wife blocks using just these methods though lazily I'm just drawing round the ones friend Trish has already done. We'll have more than a 100 by the time we've completed all the blocks.
Anyway Terence holds true to the Quay Quilters' path and just loves those templates, the quilter's wheel (everybody should have one!) but also devising new ways of using them and with the Spinning Stars developing more and more takes on the original idea. With the original publicity I'd seen a photo of one of the quilts, took a photo of it myself and took fabrics accordingly so that was what I chose to do though with all the chat and demonstrating I only completed one block set - eight or nine more to do to complete a Linus quilt. I cut several layers at once with scissors  (drawing and cutting 192  separate shapes did not appeal) and perhaps that is why my block is not as accurate as I should like. I think I would abandon the template route and opt for foundation piecing  for any future attempts.

Terence's sample