Kat Quilt - Block 1

Thanks to all of you who responded to my request for ideas when I was looking for a quilt or block pattern that represented light shining through the darkness.  There were so many great ones and I thought I had settled on "Circles at Midnight" from Jean.  I really love the concept of this quilt but it calls for batiks, which I don't have in my stash.  I thought I'd make each crescent it's own fabric, but then there was all that time-consuming applique.....

My dear friend Brenda (no blog) suggested I do something with colorful shapes peeking out through the blackness.  I loved this idea, too, so I decided to combine the two concepts.

Here's what I came up with.... 

I started with a 13" black print square and drew a star in the middle with chalk.

I thought the first star wasn't big enough, so I drew it a little bigger.

Using the "dump and sew" method that is so popular lately, I put together a 13" block with my blue scraps.  I love that I can look at this block and tell you what every fabric was originally used for :-).

I pinned the two together (right sides up), so the black covered the blue.

I sewed through both layers with black thread, following the (outer) star shape. Then came the fun (but also really scary!) part.... 

Using my smallest, sharpest scissors, I cut away the top layer of black, about 1/4" inside the star shape (where the stitching line is).  This leaves a raw edge on the black, which I'm hoping (fingers crossed!) will shrivel up and fray a bit once this goes through the washing machine and the dryer.

Here's a close-up of one point of the star.

I learned a few good lessons on this first block --- mainly that a lot of the patchwork I did on the blue block was wasted, since it's covered by the black on top.  I'm planning to do it a little differently next time.

I have ideas for several more blocks, working my way up to 20 for this quilt.  (I trimmed the block down to 12.5" after cutting out the star.)  I'll set them into 5 rows of 4 blocks each and possibly add some borders.  

This won't be a traditional quilt at all, but it will symbolize so much for me... I can't wait to make some more progress!

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~