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The Making of a Star

Updated: Jul 10

When I create something new there is a procedure. First a glimmer of a thought. Then an idea and then a picture forms in my mind. And then I see the colors!


Sometimes I dream and wake up with a very clear picture in my mind. This time, I had many dreams and woke up seeing many different stars.


The first was a black exploding star. I thought about it for a few days and decided not to create it. Too depressing.


The next was a red and black explosion. That would have been a very striking star but no.


And then I saw a Nova. A bright light shattering into many many colors, greens and turquoises and lilacs and purples. That is the one for the making of a star.



drawing of a radiating star on yellow paper held by a hand


I saw all the colors and the placement of everything, I have a large collection of fabric scraps and lots of these colors. Made a huge cup of coffee and went to the studio and took boxes of fabrics out and started searching.



plastic containers on shelves


I searched for threads as well in the colors that I had "seen" These are the colors that I wanted to use but none of them are polyester and will snap on the machine when I sew.


See how I test for "snapping" here




spools of fabric threads on a white tray


I found these and they are polyester so I will use them.



spools of fabric thread purple teal grey and blue


I think that a large part of being an artist is being flexible and creating with what one has on hand . It would be easy to buy the exact color threads that I "saw" but I have a huge supply and it would also be wasteful.


One of the things that I stress when I teach is not to waste either money or resources. It is mentally challenging to be creative and keeps us young.


Of course I keep the orts from testing the threads,



orts balls of fabric threads and a finger pointing to them


I use them for creating and already have boxes full of them.



remnants of fabric threads


I found many different purple shades of fabric



purple fabric strips


and blues



blue fabric strips


and greens



green fabric strips


and olive green fabrics. I have many sheets and upcycled clothing in my fabric supplies so I have a very interesting range of colors. Some I have more of and some, which are from shirts are limited in quantity and the colors can never be repeated as they are from vintage clothes. That is something else that forces me to be creative.



pale green fabric strips


I also found a blue sheet which I cut to size for the backing of the quilt. The quilt will be 80 x 120 cm so I cut the sheet to 90 x 130 to allow for shrinkage when quilting.



sheet on a table near a window


I cut the fabric to strips of equal size and lay them in piles on the table so that I can see the selection and choose from it.



fabric strips on a table


I lay my chosen selection on a wooden board. This way it is easy to move from side to side.



fabric strips laid out in a color prgression  of blues purples and greens


This is my selection. The colors are slightly darker and deeper than in the picture. I just took the board outside to take a photo in daylight which is better than taking a photo in the studio, but its cloudy today so it is not as true as it should be.



another color progression of fabric strips


The sky today. A good day for staying inside and creating



cloudy sky line with 2 palm trees

This project will keep me busy for the next few weeks. I am creating a large star and have a vision for a smaller one as well. I will then write a tutorial and create a video which will be on the site for purchase so follow here.



Wave Landscape Patchwork Techniques and Video Tutorials

The tutorials are available here on Etsy

and here on my site

and the videos classes can be viewed here on my site after purchase

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