Patriotic Quilt - From the Beginning

Now that I have completed all the blocks for the Think Romance F8th swap, I can start on the blocks for my patriotic quilt. For me, this is actually fun.

For the first block, I used the pattern “Germany Star” in Carol Doak’s Mariner’s Star book. I picked out a few red, white and blue fabrics.





After that, I cut out all the individual pieces.











The pattern is divided into eight pieces that you combine into four quarters, then two halves and finally put it all together.













I like to tear off the paper on the seams as I go because it makes a mess to have paper pieces hidden where seams meet.

Some people tear off the paper and clean it up THEN square it, but I start out with squaring it followed by cleaning it. You may have to re-square it after you iron it (because that flattens it out) but that is not really a big deal and you know you likely won’t accidentally clip too close and lose a point. If you are going to lose points, there really isn’t a good reason to do paper piecing in the first place!











Ta Da!!!!


Hmmm. The border kind of swallows the points. It would have “popped” better if I had used something that contrasted. Oh well. This picture is before it is cleaned up.

Oh, and I made a decision on the longarm – Gammill it is. I left word with the dealer on his voice mail.