Stars in My Eyes: Cathedral Windows Wall Quilt Complete

It's finished! 

The beauty of a true scrap quilt like this is that I can look at any of the colored patches and tell you exactly what other project I used that bit of fabric in.  So many memories from a quilted life!  I am pleased-as-punch with the way this turned out!

This is as big as I can comfortably do on my little domestic sewing machine.  The last row of colored patches was the hardest to sew because of the bulk.   That said, once I finished sewing the bias edges on the last block, it was done!  No layering - no binding!  It's done (except for labels and hanging pocket, of course).

I love how the white part looks puckered and "used" as if it's a much older quilt.  Antiqued!

I love the quilted patterning on the back.  Not perfect, but still pleasing.

Here are some tips if you're going to make on of your own:

• After satin stitching the background blocks together, lay out the pieces and audition 2-1/2 inch squares (the colored patches) on the design wall.  When I was happy with the arrangements, I used a safety pin to hold the colored bits in place.  This was "safer" than using straight pins--literally less blood shed.  There is so much twisting and turning to sew down those colored patches that the safety pins made sense! 

• Use a stilletto to hold down the bias edges to get them started under the sewing needle.  Once you get started, those bias edges are easy to manage under the needle.
  

• When it got to be a certain size, it was easier to stitch 2 sides of the colored patches down an entire row, then come back up the other side as a row.  Less twisting and turning that way.

 

If you look at the stars from the side, you can see the puff better.  

What a difference just a teaspoon of stuffing makes! 

• I kept a 1-gallon freezer bag of fluff stuffing nearby for stuffing the blocks.  This was a manageable amount to deal with--esp. since I was only using about a teaspoon of fluff per block.  More than that got too puffy and unmanageable -- In other words, it got too puffy and took up too much space in my work area.   I wound up using an acrylic fluff because it was lighter and fluffier than batting scraps.  It did the job better.
  

It doesn't really feel like it made a dent in my scrap pile, but I know I used about half of the 2-1/2 squares I cut out for this project.  So I guess that's progress.  It used a lot more white background fabric than you'd expect.  It's also heavier and denser than you'd expect.

120 # of white background squares (These started out as 9-1/2 inch squares; Finished at just over 4 inches.

218 # of Stars (colored patches - These are the 2-1/2 in squares.) 

 

I like this one because it shows my husband's feet at the bottom of the screen.

The photos show a very slight difference in the white background fabric.  I used what I had on hand -- Some Avalon muslin purchased for hand-dying -- I bought it without realizing it had a permanent press treatment, which makes it NOT suitable for dying. (I knew about that, but the online listing and description did not mention permanent press. ;-( )   In the photos, it looks like some of the background whites is a little creamier than the other.  This is not nearly so noticeable in person.

Here are the previous posts about this project:

Cathedral Windows Quilt - A New Project and a New Tutorial  (Jan 23, 2023)

Cathedral Windows Revisited (Feb 7, 2023)

Progress on The Cathedral Windows Quilt: 14 Blocks So Far (May 21, 2023)

 

Cathedral Windows Revisited

 

Here's a follow-up post to the Cathedral Windows Revisited from a few weeks ago.  I finished one of the blocks --almost entirely by machine.  Although the prep work in preparing the white background squares seemed to take longer than you'd expect, actually sewing down the bias edges over the colored patches did NOT take long at all.  I was amazed!

You can't really tell from this angle, but there's a little bit of stuffing behind each of the colored patches. I used some left-over quilt batting -- about 2 teaspoons worth!

  Here's a shot of the colred patches laid out, but not yet sewn down. 

 

I'm taking you backwards and deconstructing the white background squares.

Here is the background grid without the colored patches.  The colored bits cover the edge-joined seems shown above. 

 

Here's a close-up of one of the satin-stitched edge-joined seems. I am still working on the perfect technique for this -- stitch length and width.   

 

Here it is from the back. 

 

Once the patches are sewn in, it makes a nice orange peel pattern on the back. 

The little bit of stuffing on the front side helps add the definition.

Did I mention that at this point, the block is finished--done and quilted. There is not batting in this kind of quilt.

 

Here's a detail shot of that stitching pattern from the back.  I can see that I may want to be a little more conscious of what's happening on the back and I'm stitching those bias edges over the colored patches. 

This is only my first try with the new method. I was so impressed, I thought it was worth a follow-up blog post.

I don't know how long I'm going to work on this, but I went through my scrap bucket and cut all the 2-1/2 inch squares I could wrangle from it.

I have a lot of Avalon muslin left from dying days.  Turns out it was treated with some kind of permanent press thing which seems to prevent it from taking up the dye color as I would have hoped.  So it needs to be put to some other purpose: It seems to be working well as a substrate for Cathedral Windows!

Cathedral Windows Quilt - A New Project and a New Tutorial

Cathedral Windows 2

After purchasing a couple of vintage and antique cathedral window quilts, I am inspired to give it another try.   I worked up some of the white foundation / background patches this weekend, and I've been cutting 2-1/2 inch squares from the scrap pile ...  We'll see how this test piece goes and just how big it grows!

I stumbled upon this video for making a Cathedral Windows Quilt (mostly) by machine.  It inspired me (along with my recent collectables)  to give it another try with some different techniques that I think will make it go a little easier and faster than my previous try at it.   Hers came out so nice, and I do have a lot of scraps around these days.  Although I am not planning a bed-size quilt, I may do a wall-hanging.

Although Cathedral Window Quilts traditionally have no batting, she did  stuff the windows with a little poly fill batting.  I thought that was a nice touch, and something I want to try.

Here's the small one I did years ago.  It still pleases me to see the patches of color -- I can tell you what projects each one came from.  

I don't have that kind of intimacy or past with the vintage Cathedral Window Quilts I purchased--although I have a healthy respect for the work, skill and materials used in those -- and the fact that I did NOT have to do all the work on them.