Circle of Friends

This is my entry for the Project Quilting Focus Through the Prism challenge for June.  The inspiration was the Friendship Star block and I chose violet for my color this month.

I liked the circular design I made for the first challenge, so I folded up a square and set about designing a friendship star version.  I soon discovered I really didn't like the way the friendship star worked when drafted the same way.  

Time for Plan B. Start with a background of "made" fabric using assorted violet fabrics including the Cherrywood violet.  Add just a few bits of yellow for some sparkle. Quilt it, then add the friendship stars on the top for a 3D wreath effect.

I sewed scraps of pastels together to make fabric for the stars, then drew some friendship star shapes in assorted sizes and cut a few of each size from freezer paper.  My first thought was to face and turn each star.  Bad idea.  Those little points are a pain to turn.  I decided raw edges would look better anyway.  I simply ironed the freezer paper to the right side of the fabrics, added a piece of heavy interfacing in back and stitched just off the edge of the freezer paper.  I removed the freezer paper and cut out each star, then layered them on the background.  A button in the center of each star in the top layer completes the look.

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Created by Diane Lapacek in Poynette, WI.