My Lone Star

     In October my oldest son requested a quilt for Christmas.  I managed to get it done, quilting and all.  Below is my working drawing of the quilt.  I did take a picture of it, but I can't download it from the disc in my camera and I can't find the USB cord.  Maybe I can take it somewhere and have a disc made.    My computer is causing me all sorts of problems and I will have to come up with the money to either fix it or buy a new one. I did fix my last computer, and it only works sporadically so I suppose a new one is in my future.  Anyway, here's the quilt.

 

 

     For the most part I'm pleased with the results even though the final quilt is not exactly like the picture.  I did the quilt in three stages, the center, the inner border and stars, then the outer border. The central star went together quickly and easily using strip piecing methods. 

 

     Instead of batting and backing, I backed the quilt with fleece.  This was a dream to work with as it stayed flat and didn't form any wrinkles.  I centered the center star on the fleece and quilted that first. I discovered the quilting foot while doing this section.  I lost my walking foot somewhere so decided I'd try this.  It works beautifully as it rides on top of the quilt without pressing into it.  Unfortunately, it does take practice since it is free motion in operation.  As I have mentioned numerous times, my quilting is not the best so a lot of the lines were kind of wobbly.  To solve this problem, after I finished the initial quilting of the design, I selected a decorative stitch and went over the lines to hide the wobbles.  It turned out pretty good.

 

     My next step was to make the eight 10" star blocks around the outside edge.  Then I added a 3" strip to the outer edge of the center star, then placed the eight stars around that.  Since I didn't have a lot of time, to figure out how to set the stars in a circular pattern, I arranged them at the centers and corners on each side.  I don't think it looks as good but it got the job done.  To finish I added an 8" border to the top and bottom and a 6" border to the sides.  I actually finished it two days before Christmas.  Even though I'm not entirely happy with it, my son loves it and that's what counts.

 

     As soon as I can figure out how to get the picture out of my camera, I will post it for you to see.

 

                           Have a great New Year!