I started the Estrella quilt last week.  I’m trying to use up the scraps from my last French General quilt, all the lovely reds and beiges.  Of course as with any of my attempts to use up scraps, I needed to buy more fabric.  I bought the jelly roll, to see the full line of colors, a few of the pinks and a couple of the reds. Only half yards though, which made it a bit easier on the pocketbook. There may be enough for another red and white French General quilt. In this pattern there is pink, which I feel really ties the reds and beiges together.  After finishing the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, Frolic, Estrella is like an easier version.  Lots of chain piecing and units and smaller blocks.  On the design wall I have all the colors hanging and labeled with their letters.  when I am making a unit, I see if I have the same fabric called for, or if not I can use a similar shade of my left overs.

The first nine block parts are underneath the strips.  I really like the way these units go together to make a very large block with secondary and tertiary patterns that evolve.

I think this pattern would make a great scrappy project as well, although it would drive a person batty to try and keep the shading and values in control. I think one could make one block at a time, rather than sewing all the units and then putting them together.  Not the way I prefer to work, but it could be done.

This week I have finished quilting the feathered star (yay!) even got the binding on.  Which opened up the frame for the Live Simply quilt.  It is large, 96″ X 96″, I am using a linen backing, which is soft and drapes nicely.

I’m using a block design I got from One Song Quilting, called Feathers and Pearls 1.  I resized it to fit the 10 inch log cabin.  They stitch out in about 8 minutes, so 8 minutes x 64 blocks = about 8.5 hours.  Not too bad, and probably about the same amount of time to do a pantograph. I like the density of this design too, I think that it will help the quilt maintain its shape once it is washed.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for “Put Your Foot Down”, lots of log Cabin-y goodness going on over there with the Island Batik Challenge.