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Saturday, February 20, 2021

Amazon Star, The Biggest Quilt I Ever Made!

Here it is guys. Amazon Star designed by Quiltworx.com. It finishes at 104" x 104". I have never made a quilt this big. My daughter, Diane, wanted a duvet cover for a king size bed. So I offered to make one for her. This is a picture of the finished quilt top taken by China at Sew Special Quilts in Katy Texas, where I purchased the fabrics.

The Focus Fabric

Amazon Star has about 15 fabrics if you follow the instructions and pictures on the pattern. When it comes to choosing this many fabrics, my head explodes! We narrowed it down to 11. On the Quiltworx website you can download a file to print and color with markers or pencils. We did this. One of Diane's friends made a beautiful coloring using the colors we thought we wanted.

Of course, when we got to the quilt shop, Diane picked out fabrics no where near those colors. This is fine. We used the color drawing to help us decide where to put the fabrics we were choosing. Diane chose fabrics she liked and we spread them over the cutting table. I asked her which fabric she liked the most. We would use this for the large open areas. She chose Daisy Paisley from Michael Miller.

Daisy Paisley from Michael Miller Fabrics

The Outer Spike Fabrics

Next I asked her which fabrics she wanted for the large spikes around the edges of the quilt. Here are the fabrics she chose. 

Blush Floret Sunkissed by Dana Willard from Art Gallery
Swirly Whirly by Beth Studley for Andover Fabrics

The Eight Point Star Fabrics

We chose 3 fabrics for the eight point star units.

Zest for Your Nest designed by Savannah Gingiber from Moda

Paiges' Passion designed by Lila Tueller from Riley Blake

Panache Scribble designed by Rebecca Bryan from Kaufman


Fabric For The Rays

We chose 5 fabrics for the rays between the eight point star units.

Everglades Float designed by Betsy Siber from Michael Miller

Bloomsbury designed by Franry & Jane from Moda

Everglade Climbing designed by Betsy Silber from Michael Miller

Haven designed by Stacy Peterson from Blend Fabrics

Wild About You from Windham Fabrics

Once I got the fabrics home I washed and pressed them. I put the fabric images in the Quiltster program to check the yardage. Quiltster can be found on the Quiltworx website.

 

Piecing Amazon Star

Finally, here are some pictures and comments showing construction.

Start with the center star and spikes.

Next piece the eight point star units.

The center ring units.

The bottom part of the rays.

Top part of the rays and the outer eight point stars.

Background units and outer spikes.

Almost there!

Even though this is a large quilt, I had to add 4" to two sides to make it the correct size for the duvet cover. I drew out this spike border to paper piece and add to the top.

Download the FREE paper piecing pattern for the small border

Paper Piecing Floating Points

Next I'll be using two cotton flat sheets to make the duvet cover. One sheet will act as the lining to protect the seam allowances and the other will be the back of the duvet cover.

How Long Did It Take?

People always ask how long it takes me to paper piece a quilt. The piecing for this quilt took me about 3 weeks. But there's more to it than that. First I always prepare everything before I purchase the fabric. It took me a full two days to cut out the papers and sort them into bags. Next I purchase the fabric. Before cutting it, I wash and press it. Normally I cut up all the fabric before starting the piecing. For this quilt I chose to pre-cut the fabric into the strips needed to make the final cuts. The strips are put into the proper bags with the papers. Working with one bag at a time, I made the final cuts for that bag and did the piecing. I set goals each day and stuck to them.

I tried not to work on any other projects but if you're a quilter, you know this is not happening. Psssst, don't tell Diane but I really wanted to finish this thing and get back to my other projects!

Happy quilting!

Carol

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