My Grandmother has made a quilt for every single grandchild for their wedding. I was the first to receive mine. Grandma individually french knotted and quilted by hand each corner of gingham to make these beautiful patterns. And in the 11 years since I was married she has made 27 of these beauties. So I figured it was high time someone made one for her.
So here is the story of the 80th Birthday Surprise Lone Star Quilt. In January, the Cedar City Quilt Guild put on their retreat and when I saw that I could take a class on the Speed Lone Star Quilt I knew it was perfect. Grandma's room is blue so out came the blues (I love the look of these in monochromatic tones) from my stash and a few from my MIL's Stash (this quilt is all stash, Yippee Skippee!!!)
We learned how to piece the Diamond points at the class and I managed to get 3 put together in the time allotted. The next night was the all night sew where I cranked out the other 5 points. There was a major learning curve to making these and my last ones look much better than my first ones, and they went together a lot faster. Luckily, when all of my diamonds were sewn together the star still laid pretty flat (phew :)
Over the next week I started to add in the inset pieces of background. This is where I hit a snag. The instructions we were given was to measure the opening on both sides, average it, and then cut a piece that size to insert and ease in the extra. Unfortunately, my sides and easing did not want to agree and my triangle inserts were great on one end but came up short on the other end.
And of course, as this was all stash fabric, I only had just enough to do it once. So I forged ahead thinking I could make it work. I found a new way to put in the corner squares (using a variation of paper piecing) and they went in super fast and nice. So I went to add on the borders. Which in turn, chopped off all of the end points of my diamonds on the left hand side of the triangles where I was coming up short. (They looked about like the diamond on the end of this picture, horror!!!!)
So I thought, and thought, and tried to figure out how I could make it work with little to no extra fabric for piecing. And I came up with a solution, which I am happy to say, you don't notice at all unless you knew to look for it. (I tested it on several people ;) I made tiny points with turned applique and just whip-stitched them on to the ends :) Yippee Skippee for adverting a tragedy!!! (Although, you notice I conveniently forgot to take a picture of them, wouldn't want to burst my bubble of my theory now would I :)
Then after a little time spent crawling around on the floor (This quilt took up the entire floor of my sewing room to baste, I wish I would have taken a picture, it was hilarious :) it was time to quilt. And 27 bobbins worth of thread later and a little wrestling match with good old Bernadette the Bernette Bernina I was ecstatic!!! I can't begin to say how happy I am with the quilting came out on this one!!! I did a little vine in the 2 top and bottom strips, super easy and I wanted to keep the same kind of movement. (see above picture :)
And now something I am totally proud to say, I did feathers!!!!!! I finally got up the nerve to try them out on a huge quilt :) And I am so happy with the way they turned out. I just did them around the outer border, (and there is a reason I don't show you curving around the corners, scary :) but I am really pleased with them. I think I might be ready to add them into my comfortable quilting patterns toolbox :)
I did a beautiful swirl in the background and added some sharp points that I usually don't do with a lot more echoing. I loved it. It has so much movement and flow and it was so much fun to sew :)
And I echo curve quilted the diamonds in the star. You can see it a lot better along the back. And I just had to add this photo because I get a kick out of my shadow standing on top of the lawn furniture to take the picture :)
Here is a better shot of the echo quilting on the pieced back :) Although I still didn't manage to keep myself out of the picture :) (That is what you get when you remember to take pictures of the quilt about 30 minutes before the party, wouldn't that have been horrible if I forgot. )
So that is the tale of Grandma's 80th Birthday Quilt. I so enjoyed making this quilt for my Grandmother. And I so enjoyed watching her receive it. And ya, I was crying ;) (To bad my batteries were dead on my camera at that point) Love you Grandma!!! Happy 80th!!!!!
And since it is Tuesday I am linking up to Quilt Story and since this is an all Stash project, I am linking up to Slash the Stash :) Isn't it just fun to Link Up :)
