Not a Mariner's Compass

Lessa Siegele has done it again.  The renowned Australian tutor and patchwork quilt designer has released her pattern for the Mariners Compass that is not!  It's finished size is 1m square (40” square) plus borders.  It is a foundation pieced 18 point star, with patterns for different options.

As the name indicates, the design in this pattern is not a Mariner’s Compass. Why? because in the 18 point star version of the pattern, there may be a North and South, but no true East and West! 

Pity help the mariner if he should navigate with this for his compass!! 

Easy Foundation piecing using the patterns supplied give an accurate method to achieve those fine points as the work is stabilised during sewing.

There are many ways to do foundation piecing,  the method Lessa prefers is included with the pattern but you are happy to use different method.

This pattern contains template designs for 2 different 18 point stars. The multi coloured quilt pictured has 18 points with many divisions in each wedge using a light and dark shade of the 6 colours. There is an inner pieced ring followed by a background circle with an appliquéd star in the centre.

The pattern for the pieced centre star is shown in the blue quilt. You can decide, a plain circle, an appliquéd star or a pieced star.

The blue quilt has 18 points but the divisions within the segments are larger with less pieces. There is the same inner pieced ring followed by a pieced star and finally a small centre circle. The outer points are encircled by a ring of flying geese and a simple border finishes the quilt.

The flying geese border and the pieced centre star could be used in the pattern with many divisions or a plain background circle could be used in either quilt without a star in the middle.

This is a downloadable .pdf version of the pattern.

To read more about the pattern go to http://addicted2fabric.com.au/2018/05/23/not-a-mariners-compass/