The first step is to decide your colors. I picked the six sacred colors - yellow, white, red and black for the four directions, blue and green for earth, sky and water. Since this Star Quilt is for our second son Sage Daniel, I added the colorslavender and pink from the Holy Man Dave Swallow Jr.'s prayer flags. 
The diamonds are cut from fabrics left from garments, gifts and other quilts made for Sage and family members. The solids are from my Star Quilt and
calicos are small scraps left from cutting pattern pieces for ribbon dresses and shirts, craddleboards and baby quilts for Sage, his sister and brother and cousin Jasper. The black and white are left over material from placemats I made Sage's grandparents and aunts and uncles year's ago. The pastel solids are from cloth brought to share at Inipi ceremonies. Some were gifts from dear sisters who have known Sage his whole life. The red was gifted to me and Sage by a generous and wise woman at Bear Butte to pray. Part of the red cloth, I gave to Nila Helper whose grandfather was saved from the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee by a beaver who sheltered him in its den. Each piece of material holds a story.
I cut over 300 diamond shapes to get the 288 diamond shaped pieces for the eight-pointed star
in the right colors.
calicos are small scraps left from cutting pattern pieces for ribbon dresses and shirts, craddleboards and baby quilts for Sage, his sister and brother and cousin Jasper. The black and white are left over material from placemats I made Sage's grandparents and aunts and uncles year's ago. The pastel solids are from cloth brought to share at Inipi ceremonies. Some were gifts from dear sisters who have known Sage his whole life. The red was gifted to me and Sage by a generous and wise woman at Bear Butte to pray. Part of the red cloth, I gave to Nila Helper whose grandfather was saved from the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee by a beaver who sheltered him in its den. Each piece of material holds a story.
I cut over 300 diamond shapes to get the 288 diamond shaped pieces for the eight-pointed starin the right colors.
It is quite a workout to lay out the colors. I lay another finished star quilt down on the bed and put down the colors the way I sketched out in my planning drawings. Had to change them around several times before it worked.
In the next blog, I show the colors I chose for the eight-pointed star.
Part Two is to choose colors and cut triangles for the 4 corners and the 4 triangles in middle of each side.
Part Two is to choose colors and cut triangles for the 4 corners and the 4 triangles in middle of each side.
Photographs, story and quilt by Charleen Touchette 2010
One Earth Blog
1 comment:
Charlene! I make star quilts too. I see your name alot on Face Book probably because your name starts with a "C"
Anyway I added you on this...I'll look for you on FB if ya want to be friends. The link to my star quilts is:
http://community.webshots.com/user/magpie288
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