Michigan Star

Michigan Star

 This is a pillow top that I recently finished and wanted to share.  First there's a back story...

Last summer we got some new furniture for the porch at our cabin in Michigan.  It came with some pillows, but we wanted a few more.  I decided to make covers for some pillows that I'd rescued from our previous living room furniture at home.

Fabric colors were based on the colors of the pillows that came with the porch furniture.  While we were at the lake, I string-pieced some scraps from my stash and a few pieces that I'd picked up at Hobby Lobby in Michigan and came up with the first pillow.  The original pillows have both green and blue.  I used green in the first one.

Strip-piecing (1-1/2" unfinished)

Cut into squares and subcut into triangles.

I played around with the resulting triangles, looking for  something I liked.  I was planning to make one big block using four sub-blocks from the strip triangles.  So many options!

This is what I finally chose, though in retrospect, I'm not sure it's my favorite.  I think I like the second one better.

 Here it is with the borders that it needed to get it up to size.

I was reasonably happy with the result.  But we still needed a second pillow.  Fast-forward to January.  A pillow seemed like the perfect project while I was otherwise out of commission this winter.

I couldn't do much sewing while I was in a wheelchair and boot casts.  Eventually  I could get into my sewing chair and use the stop/start button to sew.  Trying to actually quilt seemed out of the question -- not enough control -- but I could do some piecing.  Yay!  If I sewed slowly using the button instead of the foot pedal, it would be OK (I hoped).  And after all, it was only a pillow for the porch.  I am pleased that it turned out so well.

I found a very nice Star Explosioin pattern on Mishka's Playground (if you don't know her site, be sure to visit!).  Slow paid off!  This is probably the best execution of flying geese that I've ever accomplished (damning with faint praise, but still...).  To see the pattern and directions, here.

I like the blue much better than the green.  In retrospect, I think I'd use blue for the outer [gold] squares.  Still, the colors really do work together.

The block turned out to be a tad large for the pillows I wanted to use.  Guess I'll have to make a bigger pillow or use this for something else.  Decisions, decisions.