Ribbon Star Redux #2

This is the block that would not die.

I made the Ribbon Star back in the midst of the Star Sampler quilt project. You might remember that I went back and forth and resewed, had trouble, unsewed and resewed again. I finally ended up with a block with which I could live and put it in the quilt. I also, however, had a second block laying around which was not up to par.

Ribbon Star on design wall
Ribbon Star on design wall

I finally decided to do something about it. First, I looked at the block a lot. I had it hanging on my design wall for a long time.

As an aside, my design wall is completely crammed. That was part of the reason I wanted to work on this. If I could save it (for a pillow? or the start of a different project?), I could get it off my design wall.

Someone pointed out to me that one piece (blue upper left hand corner immediately next to the background square) is sewed in wrong. Someone else said that it looked like the piece you grab to unroll or unravel the Ribbon Star. I really tried to think that was true, but it bugged me nonetheless.

The other thing that bugged me was the placement of some of the fabrics. I thought I read somewhere that this would look more dimensional, if light and darks were alternated. I messed that up and wanted to fix it.

Ribbon Star unsewed
Ribbon Star unsewed

I unsewed.

First, I unsewed a little bit to see if I could make it work with unsewing as little as possible.

I pretty much had to unsew all of the major seams. One survived. I didn’t unsew the units, except one, which was great.

Then I rearranged. I moved all of the pieces and parts around until I had an arrangement with which I could live.

Press. Resew. Voila!

Final Ribbon Star
Final Ribbon Star

It isn’t perfect, but it is better and all I can do is learn from this and do better next time. I don’t know what I will do with this block, but it will be a good start to something.

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.