A Galaxy of bordered stars!

Hello everybody!

I have finally finished sewing all the borders round the blocks from my 2019 #focuscuttingsewalong blocks! It was so long ago that I actually made these blocks, that the sewalong was still called the fussycuttingsewalong (Naomi changed the name, because we are not fussy, we are focussed). 

You can see all the posts I managed on the making of these blocks at the time: Jan1  Jan2  Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Sep Oct . 2019 feels like a very long time ago.

So here's what the blocks all look like with their borders!

I chose a space fabric for the borders because these blocks (mostly) look like stars. At the time of making them, I called them 'star flowers', although I am aware that term is now being used for a different block design. I am going to call the quilt Focussed Cutting Galaxy, or maybe just Focussed Galaxy.

Next step is is to sew them all together. I did initially experiment to see if some sort of colour order was going to work, but it became obvious that too many of the blocks were too multicoloured for me to make that look coherent enough.

Grouping similar coloured blocks together. It didn't really look intentional enough.

So random placement it is. If you look, you will notice I ended up with 71 blocks total. Which is a prime number - very awkward when working with squares/rectangles and still quite awkward when working with hexagons. I've dealt with it by arranging them in 7 columns of 10 blocks, with the middle column having an extra block at the bottom. That does mean when I add fabric to round the whole thing out into a neat rectangle there will be slightly more at the bottom than at the top. I can do something with that extra space though - a quilting effect for example - and it will still be symmetrical.

So now on to sewing it together! I am sewing the blocks into their columns, and then sewing the columns to each other. Here's the first column!

I will then add the filler bit to the edges hopefully in the same space fabric I have used for the borders - I only have about a long quarters' worth left, so I will need to see if it's still possible to order some more.

This is not going to be enough fabric.

Especially if I want to use it on the back or for the binding. Then it will be on the the quilting. I am currently intending to hand quilt, but I don't have a clear quilting plan for it, only some half formed ideas that are refusing to properly coalesce in my brain. Hopefully something clearer will come to me as I continue to work on it. I am entertaining suggestions if anyone has any that don't involve grey thread. 

So go me! Actual progress on a WIP! Yay!

Thanks for reading!