Ohio Star Border

I have abandoned the plan for four lotto blocks mentioned in the previous post. Although I had a nice big piece for backing, I didn’t have enough other fabrics to extend the five blocks to 40 x 60. So I started to think square.

I extended the saw tooth star to “partner” with the Ohio Star. I was thinking of doing “something” with the hourglass block, but browsed Sally Collins’ Borders, Bindings & Edges and found this Ohio Star border.

I didn’t have enough light for background, so shifted to dark. That was getting too dark so I added the red center square.  From this trial, I can see that using only two fabrics on this border would really simplify the construction.

Normally I make up my QSTs and then lay out the quilt. However, this time I needed to be sure I’d calculated the number of all-red and the number of red-plus-blue QSTs correctly before stitching.  My first thought had been to alternate blocks with light and medium stars. But duh! The star blocks share one QST strip.  Maybe making a QST with one of each would work. It did till the lower left when in order to get the reds in the correct position, I had to ignore which light fabric was paired with it. Note to self: QSTs are directional.

So now I have to play before stitching. I don’t want all the irregularity in one spot, so I have to make it look like irregularity is what I had in mind all along. And a second issue. I do have some aqua (now looking quite green) shades that I had intended to use, but abandoned.  Their absence makes the “green” in the center look abandoned. I’ll have to think on that. Whatever I end up doing will be fine because the kids don’t care.  Charity quilts are a good way to experiment in design as well as to practice free-motion quilting.  It will go to Sunshine for WAS when finished. (Link to Sunshine blog on the right)

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