Sawtooth Star Quilt: Colour and Inspiration Tuesday

Preparing for a big 2020

I’m starting to sort and pack up my things ready to move house after Christmas….. all my batiks are already in boxes, so you can tell where my priorities lie…..

Clothes? Nope. Kitchenware? Nope. Laundry consumables…… does the iron count?! hahahaha nope, because it’s only used for quilting…. Schooling supplies and toys? Some. Batiks and favourite books? …. Ready to go!

Biased priorities aside, in starting to sort my sewing space I have had to have a good hard look at my quilting UFOs. Many are moving house with me, and will form the backbone of my sewing for the year. But there are a few that just need to be finished and delivered now. And there ain’t nothin’ like a deadline….

The most outstanding UFO

Probably the most interesting and urgent UFO in my collection is this one. And the most shamefully neglected. And until Saturday, the furthest from done. This is a donation quilt that I have held far longer than was my right to do so. It came to me as one of two pinned quilt sandwiches a year ago. I quilted and returned the first in good time. But this one got put aside.

Apart from being busy, there was a reason. And that reason was…. I couldn’t decide how to quilt it. It seemed to me that it either required custom quilting in keeping with all the effort that had gone into the piecing. Or an all over pantograph. And I am not set up to do a pantograph.

Have a look at these blocks… someone very clever and patient has fussy cut and pieced all these kaleidoscopes.

And these Sawtooth Star blocks, also with kaleidoscopes.

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Pretty.

Couldn’t do a pantograph. So that left custom quilting…..

But there was a problem. One of the sawtooth star blocks was not a star at all, thanks to the rotation of some of the flying geese. In truth, it was not very noticable in context, and if I had been in a position to pantograph it, I would have ignored it. No problem.

But if I custom quilted it, I feared it would become really noticeable. And drive me totally crazy. So I looked at it, hanging in my space, for a year. All the time thinking that I would eventually find a solution. And I did! After a whole year of denial, I unpinned it and unpicked it and sewed it up to be the Sawtooth Star it had always wanted to be. It only took me three hours. Or perhaps more precisely, one year and three hours. Why I didn’t just deal with it properly at the outset, I really cannot say.

I ended up quilting the reconstituted quilt with feathers in the sashing, swirls in the kaleidoscope borders and the outer border, and stippling around the stars.

Now that it is quilted and trimmed, I can pass this quilt back to the charity group who previously pieced and pinned it. All it needs now is a binding and a label. I’m pleased it’s done, and I’m even more pleased it’s turned out so well. But now…..

…. anyone know what to do with a chameleon with a sawtooth?

That’s the quilt news of my week.

I hope you had a chance to check out a few of the link ups at last week’s colour and inspiration party. The chameleon forgot all about his sawtooth when he read Vasudha’s latest post at Storied Quilts. She shared a really simple and effective trick for sewing a gazillion half-square triangles without going mad. It’s so straightforward you will wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself.

You may also then feel a strange urge to make a scrappy quilt just to check Vasudha’s trick out….

Or a quilt full of pinwheels. This very sweet traditional linkup is from Lynn – thank you for sharing your beautiful quilts, Lynn. It’s not easy to get linked up if you don’t blog or use social media, and I really appreciate the extra effort you’ve put into sharing.

Or you might want to use your new-found HST fetish to keep up with the Patterns by Jen quilt along. Plenty of half-square triangles in November’s block. Melva at Melva Loves Scraps linked up her November yellow block, with a lovely reminiscence about what Black Eyed Susans mean to her.

How was your sewing week?

Conquer any UFOs? Or bite the bullet on any remakes? Or start something entirely new?

Tell us: What are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? We want to know so we can visit and be inspired. Link up a blog post, an IG post or simply a photo from your computer.  See if you can get the Chameleon to turn quilted with happiness. We’d love to see your quilting colours!

• Link up your latest or recent quilt/sewing excitement. All quilt construction stages welcome – finished quilts, quilt blocks – even fabric pulls! Or inspiration sources!
• You have 50 characters in the link description…. tell us who you are and what your fantastic project is.
• URL links are not necessary to link up…. non-bloggers 100% welcome! If you don’t have a URL, you can link up with just a photo.
• Take a moment to visit some friends who came to the party – leave a little love and make their day. And a link back to Clever Chameleon is always appreciated.
• Do it now……. before you forget!

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The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I am more reserved, so I will respond in gratitude by email instead. Now that it’s your turn…. Scroll right to the end, leave me a comment and tell me, what do you think? Thanks for connecting!

Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest, IG or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour & Inspiration Linky parties!