Answering some questions

I thought I'd answer some of questions left in yesterday's comments here since I was unable to reply via email.

Is it hand quilted?

Yes. I only hand quilt.

The first quilt I made (completed, that is. I had a couple of starts before that which are still unfinished) was a gift. I was pleased with the top and was worried about messing up the whole thing with machine quilting. I was afraid I'd end up with a mess of puckers all over the back. Since it wasn't that big, I decided to quilt by hand.

I had been reading Tonya's blog (Leah introduced me to it) and was inspired to try hand quilting without a hoop or frame. I tried it and was instantly hooked. My stitches were more even and smaller and I actually felt in control. And the speed! Oh the speed! I was five times faster without a hoop/frame.

My stitches aren't tiny. But they aren't huge either. I don't even try for tiny, I aim for even and consistent. If they were expertly tiny I wouldn't be able to see them. I like being able to see the stitches. And Tonya really opened my eyes to the fact that I can do whatever I like on my quilts. :-)

And I found that I really, really like the look of hand quilting. So I've never looked back. I hand quilt everything. And I have no desire to even try to get past my machine quilting fears.

Did you actually piece triangles or did you use the method where you sew squares together diagonally and then cut them apart into two triangles that are already sewn together?

I actually pieced triangles.

I've seen the method you're describing in books, but I've never tried it.

I did it the way I did because I had discovered that if you take a 3" square and slice it into 2 triangles, then sew them back into squares, you end up with (almost) a 2.5" square. And I like 2.5" squares. It's weird, but I do. I really like them. That size just seems "right" to me. And I knew I wanted to use 2.5" squares for the centers of the stars.

It did occur to me (after it was too late to turn back) that I could have used triangles for the center squares (2 pieced red triangles for each square) and then I would have had less problems with the triangles matching the squares. And I could have used a shortcut method. But it was too late. Maybe next time ;-)