NOVA ASTRA

BEHIND THE QUILT

SUMMER TWILIGHT

“It is well-known in quilting circles how I love to transform straight-edged designs by rolling folded edges back and stitching them into curves, so when a friend and fellow-quilter, Peggy, saw a complex table runner in a quilt shop in Nova Scotia that included this technique, she swiftly asked permission to take a photograph and brought it back as a trophy for me. ‘I thought you might like to do something with this’ was her challenge. The unspoken message of course was that she wanted me to develop the idea in a design of my own and then write the instructions for it so she could make it for herself, and as a teacher, this is always what I want to do: sort it out, write it down, pass it on.

“The overall design did not appeal to me, but the Star block with its rolled-back edges certainly did. After several sessions of drawing, cutting and folding, I finished up with a double star – a star in the centre surrounded by large star points on each side. Ever original, I named the design Nova Scotia Star. The centre star begins with straight edges (), which are then rolled back to make a curvy star (). The outer four (4) star points are assembled with straight edges () and then rolled back into curves (). These are all arranged to make the Nova Scotia Star block, with large squares in each corner (). When all the nine sections are joined together, it finishes as a block measuring 20in x 20in and has been made and).