No Y Seam Feathered Star video tutorial

I couldn't stand the thought of someone wanting to make the No Y Seam Feathered Star and then not being able to because of the foundation paper piecing methods used.

Sooooooooo...

I recorded myself making the whole thing.

When I get excited about something, I tend to over-do it!

To make all of this information more usable for you, I created a  9-part video tutorial series that covers every aspect of making this block.  There is over an hour of content broken down into manageable pieces that will teach you how to handle every single step.  Watch and sew-along with me at your own pace.

Bigger picture here: You'll learn how to foundation paper piece!  That skill alone will open up a new world of quilting possibilities beyond making this block. 

Yay!  I told you I was excited!

The videos can be found here on my site on the 'tutorials' page.

Enjoy and happy quilting!

Free printable coloring page for the No Y Seam Feathered Star

I use Electric Quilt software to design almost every quilt I make.  A benefit of EQ (version 7, in my case), is that I can easily play with block colorings, auditioning color/value/fabric ideas before I start cutting and sewing.

I wanted to see what a color-order feathered star would look like, so I created the image above. I think it's a winner!  Now to actually sew it... but, you know? I'd be just as satisfied seeing someone else create it. ;)  If you haven't received your free pattern for the No Y Seam Feathered Star block, get it here.

The process of coming up with additional color scheme ideas led me to create a simple, one-page PDF of the plain block, available for you to download.  Print it, color your own to audition color and placement of your fabrics.  There are so many opportunities to go "off pattern" here and be free with color!

Click image for the PDF download.

It's just another tool - not necessary - but fun and possibly helpful. 

I've absolutely loved seeing the NYSFS blocks that are starting to hit Instagram - check out the hashtag #noyseamfeatheredstar to see for yourself the magic being created!  You are also invited to join the Friends of Threaded Quilting Studio closed Facebook group for more examples and ideas.  Just click to join and I'll make sure you get added.

No Y Seam Feathered Star FREE pattern

The feathered star block is shown here at 16" square, I surrounded it with solid fabric to make a one-block baby quilt. Psst! I made a video showing how I draw/quilt those fancy feathers in the background here.

I've been working on a little project for you!

I wanted to make the feathered star foundation paper piecing templates that I've been enjoying so much available to you!  Oh yeah, and it's FREE!!  Get yours today!

I've had a lot of fun putting together different fabric combinations to make this block - some more successful than others - just being honest. ;)  I've also tested out this block in three different sizes that are included in this one pattern: 8", 12" and 16".

Here's the 12" version of the block. 

What I really like about this method is that it includes the precision of foundation paper piecing.   As I get more experienced in quilt-making, I've come to expect a certain level of point-matching and perfection.  To be honest (again), I don't want the burden of being perfect.  I'm trying to shed that.  But at the same time, when I can use easy methods to get a great outcome, I don't consider that problem-level perfectionism. :) Why am I telling you this?

Back to the pattern, so: foundation paper-piecing is accurate, that we know.  This pattern breaks down the seemingly complex block into somewhat small, easy-to-sew segments.  Those segments are joined by easy straight seams to form a 9-patch before the whole block comes together.  As the clever (or not - ha!) name so clearly indicates: there are no y-seams!  

Helllllo, cute & tiny patches! This is the 8" version of the block - THREE sizes are included in the pattern: 8", 12" and 16".

For me, I find straight seaming more comfortable and predictable, and I tend to get better results than when I sew y-seams. Better results make me happy!

I HEART SOLIDS!  Solids are always a good choice for this block.

Grab your pattern here.  

I'd absolutely love to see the fabrics you use and how you incorporate this block into your quiltmaking!  Share on Instagram using the hashtag: #noyseamfeatheredstar and feel free to tag me too, I'm @threadedquilting.

One more thing!  As an extra bonus, I've created a closed group on Facebook if you'd like to join up and show us what you've got going on, ask questions or just chat about quilty things.  I'd love to have you : Friends of Threaded Quilting Studio.

127 - 133

In this post, I'm covering my makes from the latter part of 2015. It's part of a greater effort to count up the quilts I've made over my life.

127:

I like to think that every quilt has a story, but the story behind this quilt just happens to be a GREAT story. :)

In 2008, my husband's grandma passed away... we're not to the great part of the story yet, bear with me.  Her name was Ada and she did some sewing and other handwork throughout her life.  Because I'd already established myself as a quilter at the time of her passing, her daughters wanted me to have these blocks that she had embroidered.  I'm not sure if it's called needlepoint or cross-stitching, the roses are done in a cross-stitched pattern, but the design/guide was printed on a muslin-like fabric.

Anyway, jump ahead with me to last year, 2015. My husband's cousin and his wife were expecting their first child, a daughter. To the delight of everyone, they revealed that they would be naming their little girl Ada, after what would have been her great-grandma. I did not remember that I was in possession of Grandma Ada's embroidered rose blocks until the week of baby Ada's shower!  When I suddenly remembered, I knew that I had to sew it together quickly, making a scrappy sashing/border in coordinating fabrics from my stash. The above picture was the result and it was so sweetly and warmly received by the proud parents!

128:

I made this quilt for an extremely fun, artistic, wonderful couple having their first child. I knew I wanted to try something bold, original and unique - a truly one of a kind piece that even I couldn't duplicate again.  Improv quilting seemed to be the obvious choice.  I'd been listening to podcasts and seeing social media makers talk about and produce beautiful improv quilting, I just didn't have much experience.  I decided to limit myself to black and white fabrics for the improv part and as I was making my blocks I had the idea to offset the action-packed improv with some calm solid fabrics to give it a little balance.  I took the same approach with the quilting: regularly spaced straight lines in the improv section helped to unify and calm that part down, while the solid gray showed off some spicy quilting.  Yes, I just used the word 'spicy' referring to quilting. Or maybe it should be savory.

129:

As I said early on in this series, mini quilts count!  My aforementioned modern quilt group held a holiday gift exchange.  This is the mini quilt I made for the occasion.  I love feathered stars!

130:

Man, I really loved making this quilt.  We had a need in our community which prompted the organization of a silent auction to benefit the family involved.  I couldn't resist making a quilt for it even though I solemnly vowed to myself never to make a quilt to be auctioned again.  People just don't know the value of how much fabric and all of the materials cost, let alone the labor and time involved.  It's just that I had an idea... in Iowa, our beloved Iowa Hawkeye football team had a stellar season and was selected to play in the Rose Bowl.  I had the idea to make a commemorative quilt (that's what the one red block is all about).

131:

This quilt, unlike the others, gets two pictures!  I was really enthralled with these feathered star blocks. I reworked a feathered star foundation paper piecing pattern in EQ7, making the assembly easier (for me) by eliminating y-seams.  At the same time I was brainstorming ideas for a wedding quilt to be gifted to a young friend of mine.  I really wanted to use the feathered stars, so I set them in a fun overall layout and made it.  Also at the same time, submissions for QuiltCon '16 were nearing the deadline and I thought it would be a great idea to get this quilt done in order to submit it for that show.  I did.  It wasn't accepted, but it seems pretty traditional compared to the quilts that did get accepted into the show.  Live and learn. :)

132:

It wasn't a conscious choice to repeat a lot of the same colors in this quilt as in the one just before, but sometimes that's the way it happens. This was a gift I made for another special young friend of mine who had her first baby, a girl.  She doesn't like the typically girly colors, and I can't blame her. How can a gorgeous color combo like this discriminate?

133:

Image used with permission from Quilts and More and Meredith Corporation, 2016.

Even though this quilt wasn't published until 2016, it definitely falls within the list of quilts I made in 2015.  This is the first quilt of mine that was published!   I couldn't be happier with how the process unfolded.  I thought the team at Quilts and More did a wonderful job of making my quilt look good!  The instructions were wonderfully done and the photography was outstanding.  I look forward to submitting more ideas to publishers in the future.

117 - 126

I'm on a mission to document every quilt I've made.  Before this exercise of journaling and recording these works, I would have promised you it would be upwards of 300 quilts I've made.  So, imagine my surprise to know that I'm not even over the 150 mark.  Details, details. And I do need to give myself some slack, because during these last 3 years, I've worked on hundreds more client quilts providing the quilting for the tops I didn't piece.

This entry will be covering quilts made in the first part of 2015, all my own designs and my sewing.

117

This was a really fun quilt to make and it inspired a class I taught for a local quilt group.  Working from scrap bins and sewing the blocks improv style and then cutting them down to the same measurements and adding a unifying setting, makes for a polished looking result. 

118

This baby quilt very closely resembles the one that came right before.  In this case, instead of keeping the each block monochromatic, I mixed it all up.  I trimmed each block to be the same size and added the white sashing, but this result was much different than the first.  Also, on the first quilt (above #117) I used an allover quilting design.  For this quilt, I used a different quilting motif in the sashing than what I quilted in the blocks.  

Making two quilts back to back that have an identical layout but different approaches to color & quilting, helped me experiment and develop my preferences even more.  I'm amazed at how much I'm still learning in this craft 10 years into it!

119

I called this quilt the Pedestrian at Best quilt for a number of reasons: 1) it's a simple design 2) I was listening to a lot of Courtney Barnett at the time (one of her songs is called Pedestrian at Best 3) Her album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is on orange vinyl.

Orange is one of the most underrepresented colors in my fabric stash, and I don't know why.  I thought this was so fun to make.  The great orange fabrics are really set off by the white border and gray sashing.  Fun times, man!

120

Here I am here with my son Jude. One of the teachers he had in elementary school was especially important to us.  She helped us navigate tricky waters with Jude's before his autism diagnosis and she'll always be special to us because of that.  She took a job outside of our district at the same time she was expecting her first child.  Also around the same time, Jude was into origami and one day he created this shape.  I took it as quilting inspiration - duh - and used up some of my gray scraps piecing this quilt top together.  Lots of mom-tears were shed when we stopped by the elementary school to give this to her.

121

I remember starting this quilt at a quilting retreat.  I brought with me a bunch of fabrics that I thought would be fun to use in a baby quilt, but I didn't have an exact idea about what I wanted to do.  I also brought my laptop along with me to the retreat, so I started up my EQ7 program (Electric Quilt - quilting software is a real thing, non-quilters!) to get some ideas flowing.  I knew I wanted to spend as much time as I could sewing at the retreat, so I hastily picked a block, arranged it in a layout and just started cutting up fabrics.  This quilt was the result and I was very happy with it.  I got to use some of the great orange fabrics I had leftover from quilt #119.  Friends of ours were expecting their first child but didn't find out the baby's gender until birth.  I thought this palette could go either way.  Baby Stella was born a few months later. :)

122

Seriously one of my favorite quilts! Like the last quilt, I started this one at another quilting retreat in August of 2014.  It's my own design - heavy on the HSTs, as per usual.  The repeating block I used was a reimagined take of the traditional Birds in the Air block.  I loved the symmetry mixed with asymmetry of the layout as a whole and the white negative space was fun to quilt in.  Since my baby pictured here (Jace) had never received a quilt from his quilter mama, I made sure it was completed by his 6th birthday.  He uses it every night which of course makes me feel wonderful. 

123

I made this baby quilt for a friend who had her second daughter, Ivy.  Believe it or not, this is the same block used in quilt #121 (in blues and oranges)!  I decided to play around with it some, tilting the blocks on-point and adding a sashing.  I also added custom quilting to this one, jazzing it up a bit. 

124

This is my Star Sighting pattern, and the third time I made it using different fabrics so that all three quilts have a distinct look.  I used the opportunity as I was making it to take a lot of step-out photos for use in the pattern I'm writing for it.  This size measures 96" x 96" and is currently on our bed.

125

This was a quilt whose making spanned many years.  I started piecing the top at least six or more years prior, not having any particular plan in mind for it.  I wouldn't call myself a fan of the 1930s reproduction prints, but I really loved this, a simple Irish Chain felt like such a good way to showcase these kind of prints.  My husband's aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and I knew right away that I wanted to finish this top for Kathy.  All I had to do to get it ready was to quilt and bind it. 

126

I don't know if I've mentioned this in my journal yet, but in the summer of 2015, I began meeting up with other modern quilters.  It was such a great thing for me to do. Being in community is so important - and being around other makers in particular - is so inspiring. At one meeting, we all brought a yard of a fabric we considered to be modern.  I love solids, so I took a delicious shot cotton I'd used in a recent quilt.  We all had our fabrics, sat in a circle and passed them to the left or right, kind of like musical chairs.  The fabric we ended up holding got cut in half, and then in the next round got cut in half again, continuing until all the fabrics had been cut into small pieces and we had almost every fabric at the end - just in varying amounts.  The challenge was to make something with the fabrics.  I made this quilt.  The "dark" fabrics were challenge fabrics, I paired them with low-volume fabrics from my stash.  And of course, I went with my favorite half-square triangles all arranged the same way.  It'll make a good baby quilt to give away someday.

Transition

Well, guys and gills, after quilting for clients for three years, I'm... not... doing that... now.  I thought the transition outta the biz went well with my customers.  I gave them a year's notice and let my frequent customers sign up for the months they wanted me to quilt for them.  It worked out well. I limited the spots available each month and it was easier for me to handle life homeschooling my oldest son and working.

When I finished up my customer list at the end of 2015, I spent most of January cleaning and organizing my house.  And by house, I mean my sewing room.  I went through every tool, notion and piece of fabric.  I decided to keep a lot of it, but I also threw away and donated a lot, too.  The result is a welcoming space that begs to be sewn in!

Here are a few of the things I've made in the weeks since the cleaning job was finished:

Easy Addition pattern by Brenda Ratliff, appearing in the Quilts and More Spring 2016 issue.

And below is the second top that I've made.  I've been inspired by the traditional Ocean Waves pattern for a really, really long time.  I don't know what it is about MANY, MANY half-square triangles that I love.  It's a blessing and a curse.  They look so pretty, but they are legit time-consuming.

I'll let you in on a little secret.  It's always bothered me how the Ocean Waves blocks are typically not arranged symmetrically.  I get that it creates movement and interest.  I don't know what it says about my personality that I just couldn't do it the same way.  Oh well, I made it my own and that's what it's all about.

And at the risk of being a one-trick pony (making one element different), I couldn't resist adding an outlier block.

This is my own design/take on the Ocean Waves quilt.  You can find more pics by searching the hashtag #oceanwavvesquilt on Instagram.

I think I have a quilting plan for it, I just haven't executed it yet.  More to come on this one.