Turkey Tracks: April 8, 2019
Lone Star Block Terror
I’ve always been terrified of trying a Lone Star block.
The 4th block in The Color Collective online class (Tara Faughnan, and hosted by Amy Newbold at Sewtopia) is…a Lone Star block.
And, whoo hoo!!! I did it. Tara’s instructions and videos were excellent. This class uses all Kona solids, and each month Tara chooses a selection of 12 colors to send us for the block of that month.
She suggested this 4-block arm version for the first try, and I’m glad I did that, even though I loved the bigger 9-block arm much better as it allows 5 colors and a background color.
But one makes trial blocks for a reason. Here, the light grey makes the block look too “neon.” And the acid-green star points lose the drama they would have had with a dark background. The dark background would also have knocked back the neon nature of these colors.
I turned this block into a pillow—which is why I used the light grey in the first place. It was as simple as I had a light grey invisible zipper. The pillow construction comes from Anna Graham’s HANDMADE STYLE. Graham’s patterns are also on the Noodlehead web site. Both sides of the pillows are lined with muslin and quilted. And an invisible zipper closes the pillow case.
There is something about these two blocks together that I like a lot. The Radiating Log Cabin finishes at, I think, 20 inches. The bigger Lone Star at 30+ inches. Hmmmm…
I quilted both with size 8 perle cotton with big stitches:
These pillows could likely land up on the bed in the downstairs bedroom just behind this chair.
I have one more pillow insert. Perhaps I will try block FIVE in a pillow size in days to come…
Then, NO MORE PILLOWS!
But, these new ones have perked up my whole house.
It’s been a nice winter project, and I’m loving learning so many new techniques with The Color Collective class.
PS: Look where Tara Faughnan took the Lone Star method (TaraFaughnan.com). Talk about inspiration!
That’s a 36-block arm. Look at the center, and you’ll see the block comes together in quadrants. Each quadrant has two arms.
Holy Moly!
Louisa Enright's Blog 
Love the pillow! Well-done! – judith
What size are your diamonds and what are the measurements for your squares and triangles?
That project was designed by Tara Faughnan in her online class The Color Collective, hosted by Sewtopia. I am not at liberty to give you her design information. You could visit her web site to see if she sells either this design process or her block.