Stars in the Center

Way back in 2018, I pieced a quilt flimsy called Starlight Express which I had planned to donate to the quilt auction fundraiser that our Pennsylvania grandchildren attended at that time. The sale committee would have hand quilted the flimsy.

I designed this quilt myself and didn't really plan it out ahead of time. Some of the checkerboard border spacing around the center stars was 'fudged'. The quilt committee didn't like my 'fudged' spacing and refused the quilt top. I was rather peeved, I didn't think it looked that bad, but in retrospect I decided that if I were going to buy a quilt in an auction, I would want it pieced nicely without fudged spacing.

The farmer flew to Phoenix to visit our daughter in March 2024 which meant that I was in control of the TV in the evenings. NO SPORTS were watched while I watched documentaries and other programs that were of interest to me and took apart the offending 'fudged' borders. This time, when I sewed the checkerboard border back together, I made sure the blocks were evenly spaced.

I dropped the flimsy off at Lori's in April 2024, it went into the quilting frame in August. Then poor Lori slipped on outside steps, fell and broke both bones in her upper right arm by her shoulder! 😢 It took several months for those bones to heal and then several months of rehab before she regained the necessary mobility. Finally she was able to long arm quilt again.

I've renamed this quilt Stars in the Center. The quilting is finally finished and the binding is completed.

Since our grandchildren no longer attend that school and I had intended to donate this quilt anyway, she will be donated to the 2025 Michiana Mennonite Relief sale held on September 27th at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds . . . just in case any of you are interested in purchasing a quilt. Stars in the Center is a large quilt, she measures 97.5" by 108". I don't know why I put a checkerboard border on the short sides of the flimsy but not the long sides. Like I said, I pieced this quilt back in 2018, who knows what my thinking was then.

There will be an online link, for viewing the sale quilts, that will be available in mid September. I'll publish the link when it's available.

Lori Null quilted Stars in the Center with the Baptist Fan design. When in doubt, go with  Baptist Fan quilting, it always looks nice.

In all of these pictures you can easily see the revised patchwork borders around the stars. I didn't take a before picture of the offending blocks.

I used a lot of leftover cream fabrics in this quilt.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Starlight Express Finish

Starlight Express is finished. The stars started out as a jellyroll gifted to me by Nanette. The stars were pieced using the Starlight Express pattern from Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott. The rest of the design came from my imagination.

I pulled fabrics from my stash that were similar to the original fabrics. I did buy the border fabric. Yoder Department Store in Shipshewana still had this original fabric from the line. I also finished up four background fabrics that needed to be used. I didn't intend to make a king sized quilt but that's what happened. The flimsy measures 99" by 111".

I wrote a post in November about piecing the stars and another post when I added the first checkerboard border.

This is a donation to the school auction the Pennsylvania grandchildren attend. It will be hand quilted by someone  else.

Linking to Let's Bee Social,  Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finish It Up Friday, Show Off Saturday, Oh Scrap!

20th Anniversary Quilt Retreat!

I attended the Jane Stickle quilt retreat the weekend before Thanksgiving. This retreat was a celebration of 20 years of continuous retreats. The very first retreat was held in November 1998. I didn't start attending the retreats until November 2007 and haven't missed since.

We had two show & tells this retreat. On Thursday evening we had a special Dear Jane show & tell. Anything item that was made with Jane blocks  or special challenges from the last 20 years were eligible to be shown and there was a lot to show. Also . . . there were 9 new Dear Jane quilt finishes. 

Last summer, a large online group of retreat attendees started piecing Jane, completing two blocks a week. They will be piecing awhile but their quilts are in progress. The Dear Jane quilt is still alive and happening in our group.

Rosemary always does such a wonderful job of taking pictures at show & tell. I'm going to link to her blog and let you watch from the smile box she made. Rosemary's smilebox, November 2018 retreat. Have your coffee ready to sip while you watch, there are 400 pictures!

Of course I showed my Dear Jane which I hand quilted and finished in 2016. 

What else did I do at the retreat besides party?

I pieced a Boston Commons for me. She'll hang in the closet for awhile until I decide how I want her quilted.

The yellow fabric was left from my Nearly Insane quilt. It is nearly impossible to get a good picture, it always show lighter than it really is.  I took a close up of a corner and the yellow does look better, at least I thought it did, maybe it doesn't. Oh well.

I took one picture of the flimsy with the light on and the second one the overhead light is off and the blinds pulled shut. It didn't seem to help at all.

My Boston Commons is an old pattern, designed back in the 80's and this is the only pattern I've ever used for this design. I don't know if this method is used in other Boston Commons patterns or not.

First you piece the center and add the first border. 

Then you piece the corner sections then attach them which looks rather weird.

Finally you piece the top, bottom and side sections and attach them. After that it's the outside border and it's a flimsy ready to be quilted.

The pattern suggests you use the same fabric as the inside border for the outside. I don't really like light borders for bed quilts that are going to be used. I love deep dark blue so that is what I used. 

My quilt is king sized 98" by 120" and is the first flimsy to be crossed off this list for this winter's quilting season.

I also worked on Starlight Express. The center section is pieced. Currently I'm piecing 9-patch blocks to make a border around the center. Hopefully this will be a completed flimsy next week.

Linking to Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Show Off Saturday

Piecing & Prepping

After spending most of this year finishing UFQ's, I've started a new list for this quilting season. One of the challenges I've given myself is to make at least two different projects using precuts that I have on hand.

The first precut project is Starlight Express from Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott. The jellyroll used is Heart's Content by Laundry Basket Quilts and gifted to me by Nanette several years ago. 

Thank you Nanette, these were nice colors to work with.

The finished quilt from the book looks like this but my quilt won't because this project is a two in one project. Not only am I depleting a bit of the precut population, I'm going to enlarge the quilt to queen size and then I'll have a donation quilt for the school auction my Pennsylvania grands attend. And!, I don't have to quilt it, win win!

It was a very windy and drizzly day when I tried to get pictures of the stars on the clothesline. I thought about laying the blocks on the leaves and taking a picture that way but the leaves were wet and I was afraid the wind would blow the stars down into the cow pasture. I pinned three of the stars to the quilting frame and took a picture that way. There are four stars, but the 4th one didn't fit.

I'm a control freak and wanted the red and teal to be continuous in my stars so I added red and teal from my own stash. Don't worry, I'll use the rest of the strips as I finish the quilt. I have a rough sketch of how I want the the quilt to be set. This project will be traveling along with me to the Jane Stickle retreat next week. Who knows though, the flimsy may end up looking nothing like my sketch.

Last spring I pieced a Boston Commons flimsy for the school auction. I liked it so much, I decided to make one for our bed here at home, but of course, in blues and yellows. These strips have been sewn, sub-cut and are ready to be sewn together at the retreat. This is another project on my list.

A lot of people are excited about Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery quilt starting Thanksgiving weekend. Do you know about the mystery quilt sew along with Charlotte Hawks starting in January 2019? Check out her blog. I don't think her mystery quilts are quite as labor intensive as Bonnie's. 

I won't be participating in either of these mysteries. This year I am only going to make quilts that I want to make, mysteries and BOM's are NOT on my list.

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Show Off Saturday, Oh Scrap!