Railroadersbrat

Hey everyone, I hope that we all got through this latest snowstorm okay. We are good, about eight inches of snow on the ground and luckily, the power is still back on. My head seemed to tolerate it all okay, I'm not the best but it could certainly be a lot worse.

The last few days, I've been looking at some Judy Niemeyer patterns and thought maybe of getting one and try it this year. My problem is that I have hyperacusis - an extreme sensitivity to certain sounds and paper, unfortunately, is one of them. I checked out one of her tutorials, just to see how much handling of paper she requires and I'm sad to say, there's no way that I could do one of her patterns right now, the first time she rustled the paper, I thought I was going to hit the ceiling and blow a hole in my roof, my hearing is just that sensitive right now. I could wear ear plugs, yes, but I need to be able to hear my house when I'm sewing, especially when I'm here alone.

I've got it on my list this year to at least try a foundation paper pieced quilt, just to say that I have one under my belt, so instead of one of Judy's patterns, I thought I would go with something much simpler. I was cruising around and found a Hunter's Star - the block is 12.5" unfinished and thought I'd give it a go.

Has anyone ever done a Hunter's Star with layer cakes and if so, how many did it take for your quilt? I'm actually on the fence right now as to how big I want mine, I'm thinking 60 x 60 inches, just for the blocks and then figure out a border later, so it would be five blocks across and five blocks down - 25 blocks total. I tried to figure out the math on how much fabric I would need and I just can't get anywhere, I blame that on the weather shift and the fact that I'm tired from being on the edge of migraines this week.

I've got a few units printed off that I'm thinking of playing around with this weekend, just to get the feel of the steps involved and see what I can do to reduce the sound problem with the paper. Luckily, I've got a ream of actual news print paper, so it's super thin and not as crinkly as regular paper.

Any thoughts, tips, ideas, advice would be great. Thanks, ladies.

Quilting Raven

I’m not familiar with the pattern, but math wise I think one should work. 60*60= 3600 square inches. A layer cake is 42 10 inch squares. 10*10=100*42=4200 square inches. This doesn’t account for seam allowances and waste. I can’t give you that because of my unfamiliarity with the pattern. You could always get two ant use the second as a border if you don’t need it.

lindaschipper

Have you tried noise blocking earmuffs? Many construction workers and NASCAR attendee's wear them to help reduce loud noises. My daughter is sensitive to loud chewing noises...no one can eat celery or nacho chips around her!

WesternWilson

Hunter's Star quilts are stunners! But you do not need to do it Paper Pieced/foundation pieced if you don't want to deal with paper. There is a nifty video by Jennie Doan at Missouri Star Quilt Co. that breaks down this pattern into simple-to-sew elements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7KtiLK_xJk

While you must pay attention to accuracy, you are making nothing more complex than half square triangles. Good pinning should get your points out nice and clean.

I make my HST's using papers printed on my home printer via the Triangulations program (Bear Paw Productions) but there are plenty of non-paper approaches:
http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/20...tips-accuracy/

cashs_mom

I've never done a Hunter's Star but I did make a One by One quilt that is a kaleidoscope-type quilt and all HST. I didn't paper piece, I just starched the fabric until it was like little pieces of paper and had no trouble with the bias. You might try that a see if you can work with a non paper pieced method.

You can also do foundation piecing without it being PP. I made a wall hanging that was supposed to be PP, but I traced it onto muslin fabric and used it that way. I worked fine except that I used sharpie on part of it thinking it was permanent. Not always. I had to redo a block because when I was pressing I used a spurt of Best Press to press it flat and the sharpie bled thru onto the white back ground. Other than that oops. I worked fine.

KalamaQuilts

I'm working on a Niemeyer, her paper is tissue. They are very nice there, you might write and ask if you could get a sample to play with?

juliasb

I recently made a Hunter Star Quilt. I used Caribbean Colors and the quilt is 60x68. I did not paper piece it. I used my Accuquilt and the Hunter Star die that I love! So much easier than trying to cut each piece from strips using a rotary cutter or paper piecing. This picture was before I had it finished and quilted however.

Carolyn71

Pretty quilt! Love Hunter Star!

Railroadersbrat

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. juliasb, your quilt is amazing!

I do get that I don't have to FPP a Hunter's Star, I think my quarter inch is now stabilized enough that I could probably pull it off without too many issues. I do, however, want to experience FPP at least once and it's on my 'to-do' list for this year, hence the reason for the post.

I'll be contacting Quiltworx at some point this week to see if they would send samples of their papers, I didn't even think that was even an option.

The thought of earmuffs or earbuds has crossed my mind, but it's really not an option. With a fiancé and two dogs, I've got to be able to 'hear' my house in case something happens or my fiancé needs me for something. I usually get a week to myself each month as he goes over to the village next to our town to check on on a senior friend, I could possibly work on one of her patterns when he's gone and use earmuffs, but it would take me a very long time to finish.

Macybaby

When I was making a crazy quilt, I used thin muslin and drew the lines on the back (they need to be reversed as it is the back, not the front). It worked very well. I do not use the "add a quarter" method when sewing, so don't need to be folding back to trim. Sometimes I did have to take out a few stitches if I really stitched past the line.

It would be work, but I don't see any reason why you could not do that with any FPP pattern, and I've done a lot of them. A nice light table would make tracing a lot easier. You might have to wear ear plugs while working with the paper to do the tracing, but that shouldn't take as long as the sewing part - or maybe get someone else to do that part for you. Provided they have a steady hand (or good ruler skills).