Would You Like to Swing on a Star?

Wow, 50 stars to this Constellation quilt. Its not a complaint, mind you. Just reality. Like thunder bumpin' a stump. Its a jolt to my entire being how much it takes to build a quilt.

Each star begins with a 4-patch, and then is bordered with flying geese pieces, so that means 200 of those guys, finished. Two hundred center triangles with 400 smaller triangles, pinned, pieced and pressed. And then again, pinned, pieced & pressed.

Colors need to be matched each step along the way from the 4-patches to the flying geese, and then 4-corners, so that visual spiral tension of color is achieved for the top. 

It is a quilt-maker's choice to either have them coordinate or contrast. And every step offers that opportunity. I started coordinating and know that the next step will bring on the contrast.

I am working on both this one and the Cat Paper Piecing quilt at the same time so that I can work until I need to give myself a breather, step back and come back refreshed. All of the blocks in a row are the same, so its getting easier to cut the pieces to fit with less waste. What seems to be working for me is to keep sewing them on the paper copies. At first, I thought it might take me an evening to cut the papers off and pin the two parts of the blocks together. That is probably a low calculation of the time it will take.

And for the in-between times, I keep doing 'little small things' like the block swaps, and the holiday projects, as well as remembering to make the occasional item to go into one of the Grandchildren's boxes.

I still wonder if anyone really likes what I make and give them. In this new world, people don't find time to say thank you, and so its hard to know if they are smiling or rolling their eyes when they get something I've made. It has become a common issue, resulting in a practice for a quilt-maker to do what she (or he) does for herself. For the pleasure of it, for the opportunities to grow, and for the friends she makes.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SWING ON A STAR? Carry Moonbeams home in a jar, and be better off than you are? Or would you rather make a quilt?