Yesterday I took a quilt guild class on Ohio Stars. The teacher was Linda Wagner. She taught us to make Ohio Stars without sewing triangles. It was done with the Fast Patch method by Anita Hallick (I am not sure I spelled the last name correctly. I apologize Anita.) I made a quilt years ago from Anita's book, Fast Patch. I counted the times I cut and sewed the original strips of fabric, and if I remember correctly, it was seven times. Since then I have learned many different ways to make squares from half square triangles. The unique thing about the method Linda taught us, is that when you finally make the unit and cut it up for the last time, you end up with enough triangles to make two blocks, a positive and a negative type system.
Linda shared a beautiful quilt she made with red, white and blue (one of my favorite color combinations). It was 90 Ohio Star blocks all sewn together without sashing. She used different center squares for each block. Each block had a matching "sister" block made from the same fabrics, with different centers. I managed to get six blocks done. I put these on my design wall with the sister block underneath the first block. When these blocks are spread around a quilt, you do not realize there is a set of two matching blocks in the quilt. They all blend together so well. I like to see these quilts at a show and read the comments about the quilt. DH likes these quilts, too. He will search and search to find the companion block.
Today I must get busy and sew the last two bindings on my quilts that I want to exhibit at our quilt show next month. I need to get them finished this week because they must be delivered to the guild members who are receiving the show quilts by the 14th. I still need to sew on sleeves on the six quilts that I hope to exhibit after I get the bindings done.
Linda said yesterday that Alex Anderson says every quilt guild should have quilt shows. It is motivation to finish our quilts (instead of leaving them as UFOs). So, I must stop playing with Ohio Star blocks and bind, bind, bind.
Happy Quilting
2 comments:
These stars are great! What bright, happy colors, and I love the "2 for 1" aspect of the cutting/sewing process. It always seems like a bonus, and the blocks are different enough to not be too obvious. Great idea! I'll have to try that!
Oh, and good luck with the bindings and sleeves! (I always hate the sleeve part of the process.)
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