Stargazey Style - What's it All About?
Stargazey blocks are generally ‘crooked’ or, more
correctly, the insides of the blocks are skewed. With their ‘hand
drawn’ quality, they have a touch of the primitive about them.
The blocks are slightly different every time they are made so everyone
is able to put their personal stamp on them.
Stargazey patterns offer patchwork freedom. Freedom to cut
and stitch ‘roughly’ concentrating on design and creative
fabric usage rather than slavishly following the sample. They offer
freedom to break rules and challenge tradition - injecting your
quilts with contemporary vibrancy.
Stargazey patterns are designed to be accessible to all skill
levels. Knowledge of rotary cutting and using a sewing machine
is essential but other than that all that is needed is an open mind.
Sometimes it can be an advantage to be experienced, sometimes it
can be an advantage to be a beginner.
The best advice I can give to a Stargazey newcomer is to read
through the whole pattern, especially the “working in Stargazey
Style page” before beginning cutting and stitching. Follow
the pattern - don’t assume that the rules taught in beginners
patchwork will be adhered to. For example, we don’t generally
worry about the grain of the fabric, the blocks generally grow to
be rough edged and are usually trimmed to perfect size - this final
squaring up gives a perfect result without the need for straight
grain edges. Making up a sample block, (or two or three), until
there is an understanding of the design, is essential!
Fabric is cut straight with a rotary cutter and ruler but the
size of the piece may vary. The pattern may say “cut a
4” x 5” rectangle” - that rectangle only has to be
rectangular ‘ish’ - it may have rough edges, it may be
more like a parallelogram, it just has to have the same sort of
measurement. This makes for easy quick cutting and economical use
of fabric. It also helps to make each block a little different!
Of course you may choose to cut perfectly too!
Stargazey patterns have unusual cutting techniques to enable
unique blocks to be made repeatedly and uniquely! Cutting always
starts from rectangles, but how these rectangles are further sliced
and trimmed not only adds to the quirkiness of the designs but also
the ease of construction. These patterns don’t use fancy or
difficult techniques, they don’t contain templates, they just
differ from the norm.
Generally the patterns have multiple block sizes included.
This enables the user to mix sizes to create interesting settings.
It also allows use of the block size that fits each quilt or project,
eg perhaps for a cot quilt choose the smallest size, for a king
size quilt choose the biggest size.
Fabric requirements are very loose - I give minimum yardage.
I love scrappy quilts and I don’t expect others to be using
the exact same fabric in the exact same spot as I did on my sample.
I don’t even expect you to be making your quilt the same size
and setting of the sample! I’d advise anyone to build a fabric
collection reflecting their taste. I generally buy 1/2 metre, (1/2
yard), cuts of those I love so that when I run out of one another
may be substituted. I feel a more liberal fabric requirement list
is generally accepted as permission to relax and create.
What then about those bits of fabrics that we trim off and
have left over? Isn’t it waste? I don’t think so! On my
web site Freebiez page I give you a fun little design called Starz
on Stickz, a way I have been using up scrap fabric for years now.
There are also plenty of other ways to use these off-cuts - two
of my books, Reverse Applique with No Brakez and the upcoming Magic
Ballz, can both use these scraps. Be creative with these leftovers
or give them away to a foundation piecer - they will love you! If
you don’t like the trimmings, very simply, you are not suited
to my techniques.
Fabric colour next - I use brights, it is my style. Colour
inspires me, it makes me invigorated and happy, but others may need
to choose differently. Other choices include country, florals, pastel,
shabby chic. Lots of looks are suitable. Feel free to move beyond
my colour choices if they don’t inspire.
I would like you to think of these patterns not as individual purchases
but as the start of a library of block patterns that may
be used in themed quilts. Think of them as having more life than
just one quilt. A repertoire of techniques can be built up at the
same time too. I love to combine blocks, and hope to do a lot more,
in time, to inspire you. The Samplerz series of leaflets
and workshops is a good example of this.
Oh and the Z thing? Just my bit of fun! I look on the Z to
denote difference from the norm, my crooked designs, my encouragement
of creativity and a gentle rule breaking spirit - I hope you learn
to love it too!
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Stargazey Style is all about having fun with fabric,
doing things in a different way and developing your own style.
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