A Second Self - Project Quilting

"A Second Self," 20" x 20", made for Project Quilting, Focus Through the Prism, Challenge 2: Friendship Star, June 2015 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

This is my second entry in the Project Quilting "Focus Through the Prism" challenge. To play along you need to purchase a ROYGBIV hand-dyed bundle of fabric from Cherrywood Fabrics and then at the beginning of the month a traditional quilting block is selected. Participants get to chose which of the seven focus fabrics they want to emphasize for the month, but other fabrics can be added.

All quilts will be made 20" x 20" with the intention of displaying them together in the future.

June's block is "Friendship Star."

I like to work in series. This hasn't really been possible with Project Quilting thus far because it helps to know what's coming up when you start the first project. But since the "Focus Through the Prism" quilts were already all going to be the same size and use the same fabrics, I thought this would be a good opportunity to create a Project Quilting series and have all of my quilts (hopefully seven when I'm finished) look like they belong together.

So I based my design for "A Second Self" off the layout of my first "Focus Through The Prism" challenge quilt, "Monkey Tail."

First (left) I used one large block with black in the center, like I did for "Monkey Tail." But the Monkey Wrench block was a little more complex than the Friendship Star block and I didn't like how the center of the Friendship Star was changed to black.

Second (center) I shrunk down the square so there were four of them and made the corner blocks that met in the center all black. I liked that, but not the asymmetry of the stars.

Third (right) and final, I flipped the upper right and lower left stars so they mirrored the other stars. I liked the symmetry and also the way the blue/purple and blue/green triangles met (next to the black squares).

Construction was just like in "Monkey Tail." I used the Cherrywood Fabric to piece the background then I used fused smaller fabric pieces that were just a shade darker or lighter in color. I used the same border fabric and couched a piece of black yarn, this time in a shape similar to the Celtic symbol for friendship. Then I quilted black quilting lines that echoed the yarn at 1/4" apart.

I used a knife-edge facing to bind the quilt.

For the title, I was inspired by the Isabel Norton quote "In my friend, I find a second self."

More about A Second Self and my Focus Through the Prism Series

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Friendship Star link up.