I just have to tack down the binding and my Cat's Meow quilt (free mystery pattern by Debbie Caffrey) will officially be completed. I started it Thanksgiving week. So it ended up taking about 5 months.

So I am now on the lookout for my next quilt. I am going to attempt Judy Niemeyer's Mariner's Star quilt for my son. It looks like a more masculine quilt (colors and pattern). Plus he is very much into space, stars, constellations, etc.

It is foundation paper piecing. I was able to see some of her other patterns at the local quilt store yesterday and ordered the size that I want to do (basic with 2 extras).

Has anyone made one of her quilts? Got any hints, helpful suggestions, etc?

I did a sample heart block that is foundation pieced with 9 seams and it was rather easy. The only hard time I had was with making sure my material was large enough to flip and fit.

On one of the quilting shows, one of the guests talked about cutting your pieces for foundation piecing first, so as to not waste a lot of material. I am thinking I could make templates to do so from the foundation pattern. Is this a good idea? I just don't want to waste a lot of $10/yard material. It takes a lot of fat quarters. The pattern is at www.quiltworx.com if anyone wants to see it!

When I finish the binding, I will post a picture of both the quilt and the foundation pieced heart that I made into a potholder.

Ruth

Hi Ruth,
I can't help you out with your questions, but I loved looking at the quilts on the link you posted!

Looking forward to seeing your finished project!

Good luck!

On the last large pp pattern I made, I cut all the pieces first so I would make sure I had enough of all the fabrics. I knew it would take awhile. I didn't cut the shapes, but cut them in rectangles an inch bigger in each direction than the pattern piece to be covered. There was still a lot of waste, but a lot less frustration! You can cut strips for one dimension and then cut the rectangles out of the strips for the other dimension.

By the way, the quilt I did, twenty blocks, had 96 pieces per block. I DO NOT recommend it, unless you really like boring projects!!! Each step was done 160 times!!!!!!! If you want to see it, it's in my photo link, California Star.