vintage star

There are alot of shortcuts and quick techniques for quilters now; Rotary cutters and specialty rulers, plastic templates and online tutorials.

One hundred years ago, woman traced paper patterns and cut each piece of fabric by hand.

When I came upon this star block in an old magazine I knew I had to try to make it. There was a photo of an antique quilt from the late 1800's and crudely drawn paper templates. There were no directions for assembly. Working from paper templates was challenging enough but I loved the additional puzzle of which went where and to what and how.

Amazingly, there are no set in seams, only straight lines.

I started off a little shakily, but by the time I finished the outer star I was imagining a whole quilt of vintage stars.