May Your Compass Always Point North

Middle E's college uses a compass as one of its logos.  So she chose a Mariner's Compass quilt.  Even though I have always liked the Mariner's Compass design, in all honesty, I was scared to actually make it.  But I did quite a bit of research and just started slowly.  Of course I was so intent on what  I was doing I forgot to take pictures.

Approximately 600 pins to hold it all together!

I worked with the school colors - maroon, gold, and black.  On our trip to Guatemala my mother-in-law gave me several of my father-in-law's old shirts to sew with.  He had passed away in the Spring and she also sews, so she understood my desire to have the shirts.  One of the shirts was maroon, so it was just perfect.  The calico that is paired with the largest solid maroon compass point is from my mother's stash.  So Middle E is taking her Abuelito and her Grandma with her to college.  That is important to her.

Little S enjoyed spraying out the blue ruler lines

I had tried paper piecing with some of the Dear Jane blocks, with not much success.  But after studying up more on the process I did fine on the compass points.  Even using regular copy paper didn't cause any problems.  Probably because the compass was so big.  I made it super big, because I figured if I got one good compass sewn that was going to be it.  Realistically I knew I was unlikely to make several.

Making progress.  Thinking about the next quilting element.

First I made the compass and then she looked at several layout options and choose what she liked.  She wanted stars and "frames" separating each "round".  Since I am best when I can make up things as I go along this worked perfectly.  We just decided each round as we came to it.  I took the math slowly and was successful although I had a scare (false alarm) when I went to attach the ribbon border.

Check back on Friday to see the finished quilt. 

Linking up to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts to show off our design walls - or floors in this case!