Star Quilt Revealed

Finally the star quilt can be revealed. My brother in law had his 70th birthday this week, and the star quilt was my present for him. I wanted it to be a secret, and all my sisters read this blog so all I could show was little glimpses.

I started sewing the 6" Maverick Stars early this winter, using little shirt scraps left over from last year's Summer Stash Challenge quilt and other projects. The white background is leftover scraps from making rag dolls for Unicef from old bedsheets.





At first I aimed at a top without sashings, like the Bushfire Quilts. That would have required 108 stars. Then I counted how sashings would change the quilt top. 70 stars would make the same size.


What could be more perfect for a 70th birthday! It also meant that I had all the blocks sewn and could even choose which ones to leave out.

I thought dark brown would make the quilt look more masculine, with all the pinks and reds I used for the stars to cheer up the green, brown and blue scraps.

Trying to decide on the frame:

I chose the green and white print on the left.

(Look, I washed my winter curtains after I cleaned the windows in the living room.)

You already know the story about the free motion quilting experiment.

The last phase is always so quick. When the quilting is done, I can't wait to get the binding in place to see how it turned out. Only two nights in front of the TV (Grey's Anatomy and ER) for the hand sewing part.

Here it is, in the early morning sun drying after a visit to the washing machine.

For the first time I used a pieced backing. These are the flannels I bought in Turku while visiting my daughter Kaija.

I even made a label. Blogger turned the picture, and I can't help it.

A final touch with the iron, and there it is all finished. Not perfect, but the best I could do for now.