Another year and another Stay At Home Round Robin completed! I am so thrilled with this one. It mirrors my first, in that I did all the rounds, mostly combining two prompts into one border. A big thanks to Gail of Quilting Gail who gets the ball rolling each year and her faithful blogging friends who give us prompts for each week! Without further ado, let’s take a look at my finish.
The Finished Top
I started the process with the center block and proceeded each week to follow along. I loved this North Star Block; it was designed for one of the first Quilt Alongs that I participated in, with Partners in Design. Working from the center out: center block, spools for week 1 cornerstones, stars for week 2, hourglass for week 3, flying geese for week 4, square in a square cornerstones for week 5, and the final prompt was pinwheels. I added, as promised in my prior post, a surprise block. The outer cornerstones are constructed liked the outer corners in the first block, with a tiny inset piece. I thought it was important to bring that element into the quilt. The name, Polaris, means North Star and honors the center block!
The Quilting
Here is a closeup of the first border and that special cornerstone. I used Provocative Border for the outer border.
I love it when I can get the thread to join in exactly the right spot when I do a border. If I have the proper design, I do the corners first, then add the middle piece. On this quilt I worked top to bottom, then I flipped it on the frame to fill in the side pieces – my long arm can quilt an area about 48″ wide on the frame, but only about 11″ wide, so this is the best way to do borders. If it is a longer quilt, I would have to match up points inside the border, too.
These two designs are from the Prostitcher library, one is called Mango Chain by Darlene Epp (the ovals and lines) and the other is called Rope. You can see I missed here, keeping the design entirely in the border. I am still working on perfecting that – seems even with an area, and checking the upper and bottom limits of the desing, I still manage to over or undershoot a bit. Now, I could have taken it out, but decided not to, quilter’s choice.
The Ribbon candy border is the other border motif I used. It is a favorite for many quilters, but I have not used it alot. I was glad to this time.
The last quilting motif I used was called Four Squared Twice, again from the Prostitcher library. I loved the way it fit perfectly into the star, and calls attention to the points and the inset flanges, as well as drawing your eyes into the center.
All in all, I had fun quilting this piece. At about 40″ square, it is a fun size to play with all the motifs. It does take more time than an edge to edge, 2 afternoons of quilting, rather than one for a quilt of this size and detail. And, I am pleased to say this was my OMG, One Monthly Goal, and it is done!
Polaris Quilt Stats
Polaris: 40″ x 40″
North Star Block in the center is my design.
Quilting Pantos: Provocative Border, Rope, Ribbon Candy, Four Squared Twice, Mango Chaine
Piecing Thread: Aurifil Dove Grey
Quilting Thread: Top: So Fine Silve 408, Glide Medium Grey 10424,
Bobbin: Decobob Gray DBLM-103
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Cotton/Poly
Stay At Home Round Robin Prompts
This has all the up to date links in case you are interested in the process and want to replicate. It is fun working with a block that is languishing and coming up with an original and fun design, with the help of your blogging friends.
January 16: Center Block Reveal @ Quilting Gail
January 23: 1st Round: Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn By Us
January 30: 2nd Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 6: 3rd Round: Chris @ Chrisknitssews
February 13: 4th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
February 20: 5th Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 27: 6th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
March 13: Parade of Quilts– showing all of your finished SAHRRs
Coming Up on My Blog
There is a new grand niece coming into my family, so I have decided to do a Sew Along (SAL) to help keep me focused and have it ready for her. If you have followed me for awhile, you may remember my grandnieces each received an Elizabeth Hartman quilt, and this quilt will be one, too. More details to come in a future blog post, but Fab Farm* is the pattern and there is a kit from Fat Quarter Shop*!
Fab Farm QAL Announcement
Winter Twist
Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd
Diatom Row 2 (4/13)
Linking Up
SAHRR Parade of Quilts
Wednesday Wait Loss
Midweek Makers
Put Your Foot Down
TGIFF
Brag About Your Beauties
One Monthly Goal Finish
Fabric Stash
My stash is getting smaller!
Fabric in this month: 3.5 Fabric in this year: 20.25
Fabric out this month: 8.5 Fabric out this year: 27.00
NET Fabric: -6.75 yards!
LOVE that teeny tiny strip insertion detail from the center brought out to the corners in an alternate colorway and the excellent quilting job you did on your SAHRR, Kathleen!! Well done.
Polaris is a favorite for me – I love the center star, and how you kept the fabric consistent throughout. That surprise block in the last border is brilliant.
Your quilt is wonderful! Love Polaris ⭐️
Janie
I love the special final border cornerstone. Beautiful quilting to finish off this quilt, Kathleen. Polaris is fantastic!
Your quilt looks amazing. Thanks for showing the actual quilting in detail. It looks fabulous.
You did great with this one, Kathleen! Love it! 🙂
It was well worth the time to custom quilt this. I love your blocks and all of the detail work you put into this Kathleen. Just lovely!!
Fabulous, Kathleen! I just LOVE seeing the closeups of your quilting and the reasoning behind your choices. That was the first thing that struck me after enjoying the overall piece – the ribbon candy and the rope. I love everything about this finish. Nice, nice job. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne
Your borders are lovely and the quilting is wonderful. I like that special element in the outside border cornerstones. Polaris is beautiful.
Such fun quilting, Kathleen!!! It turned out so fab!!!
I love the way your quilt came together! Your quilting is beautiful and complements the blocks!
This finished quilt is very very nice. I look and look the quilting lines. To have this skills of doing and the place for a machine to do – wow! It learn from your quilt that there is a star called Polaris. Applaus to your quilt! And… thank you so much for your very kind comment at Wendys blog for my African quilt. Thank you!
So lovely! I remember your compass block from that QAL–it was one of my favorites! The perfect center for this quilt which turned out lovely! Thanks for sharing on my weekly show and tell, Wednesday Wait Loss.
Polaris is beautiful Kathleen. Love the quilting and yes it is a huge win when you can get those thread lines to meet perfectly!
Your SAHRR quilt is wonderful! Love the center star! I like how you combined the rounds and your quilting is beautiful. Congratulations on your finish!
Kathleen, I have loved Polaris from the very start! It’s fantastic! Thanks for linking to TGIFF!
And for linking to the SAHRR ’23 Parade! 🙂
Well, this one caught my eye immediately when I went to link up my own finish. Kathleen, you did a stellar (pun not originally intended but it’s awesome if o do say so myself) job on this beautiful quilt. This was such a fun activity and I loved seeing everyone’s quilts grow each week. I well remember your centre block too, by the way. Glad it’s grown up so beautifully.
It’s perfect!! A very graphic look. Almost architectural.
The inset piece was brilliant! Lovely quilting, overall gorgeous finish. Congrats on the new grand niece!
Hi Kathleen, what a lovely quilt. You did your centre block proud. Congrats!
I love this, Kathleen! Your quilting is just fine! I often will turn my quilts for the borders just because it’s easier for me to quilt left to right than try to match up a motif going vertically! You did a great job!
Well, my comment disappeared! So here goes again! I love this, Kathleen! Your quilting is just right. I often will turn my quilt on the frame to do the side borders, simply because it’s easier for me to quilt and line up left to right than try to match up vertically when you have to roll the quilt! You did a great job! Thanks for linking up!
A gorgeous finish, excellent quilting. Bravo!
I like seeing how you work within the limitations of your machine, and seeing how you stitch.