MY FAVORITE QUILTS # 2

In the 1990's I made a lot of bed size quilts and when I think of how busy life was then, with kids, the house, several jobs, and a husband to keep happy I really don't know how I did it all.

Of course, I was younger then, a lot younger. And quiltmaking was absolutely my passion by then. I HAD to  make quilts, there was no other option. That remains true to this day.

Here is the story of another of My Favorite Quilts. 

LONE STAR GARDEN, 1997, 90" X 90" 

Detail 

The center star was inspired by an antique quilt in the book Star Quilts  by Mary Elizabeth Johnson. Each of the 8 very large diamonds is cut from a border stripe fabric, and each has to be cut exactly the same as the rest. I bought 5 yards of the Jinny Beyer border stripe and got started.

I had to return to the store to buy more yards--those diamonds are huge. I finally got all 8 diamonds pieced together, each is a single piece of fabric. The beauty of using a border stripe is the center will be a big surprise. I didn't know what it would look like until all 8 diamonds came together. I loved it.

I designed the applique blocks/triangles with inspiration from the book Jacobean Designs  by Pat Campbell. Using some of my most favorite fabrics, I cut flowers and leaves and stems for weeks. The hand applique process took months of stitching at night, mostly. 

When the center of the quilt was done it was time to figure out a border. It would have been simple to throw more of the border stripe on and call it done. But, no, this quilt deserved something more challenging than that.

Jinny Beyer had developed a technique she called "Soft Edge Piecing" and had written a book by that name. I knew that was just perfect for this quilt. So I went back to the store and bought the rest of the bolt--by now I had purchased close to 15 yards of this one fabric for this quilt.

I  hand basted the border stripe to a length of the pink background fabric. Then did that 3 more times to prepare the borders. Over many hours I slowly cut on a line on the border stripe, turned it under and hand appliqued the border stripe to the background. This is "soft edge piecing", an appliqued edge on a base fabric.

While it was completed in 1997 I know I worked on it for about two years. I marked it for quilting and took it to a woman who has doing hand quilting for the public back then--she quilted quite a few quilts for me in those years. She liked my quilts because I brought them marked and basted so all she had to do was quilt them. And regardless of the price she asked, I paid her in cash, the amount she asked, AND fabric. She didn't drive and getting out to a store was difficult so she loved having a big bag of fabric to use for her own quilts. 

This quilt was the first I  had exhibited at International Quilt Festival in Houston, It was included in the Special Exhibit "Traditional Treasures" in Houston, 2013. It was a thrill to see it hanging there.

This quilt taught me that a great quilt doesn't get made in a day. Lots of stitches, and time, will make a great quilt, just keep going. Learn new techniques, read a lot of books, get inspired by quilts from the past. And make it your own.

Let's quilt.

Barbara