I fell in love with a fabric group - Floragraphix IV by Jason Yenter - at my LQS. I loved the saturated colors and retro, flower-power prints.
After a quick thumb-through of the accompanying pattern book, I chose a pattern that appealed to me and used the large-scale prints to advantage: Exotic Star.
As I worked on piecing the quilt, I realized there was one huge headache with the pattern. Almost all of the triangles in the pattern are cut with the bias on the outside edges. I used a lot of starch to help stabilize the pieces. I sewed carefully, but still did some ripping to achieve the most accurate piecing possible. Measuring and judicious trimming were also of great importance.
These triangles didn't come out too bad - if you don't look too closely.
The fabrics are as board-stiff as I could make them with starch!
Here's my finished version (roughly 72" x 72"). I only hung it on the wall long enough to take pictures as I'm afraid the bias edges will stretch. Not sure how this will be quilted; I'm definitely taking it to my longarm artist, although I'm not sure she will appreciate all the bias edges, either!
