"Oh, My Starts" Quilt

I started this teal quilt about 2 years ago and finally finished it this week!!!  The pattern is called, "Oh, My Stars" from Pat Sloan.  It's a fun, easy pattern that you can make with charm squares or 5" blocks of fabric.  You do need a design wall to put them on so you can decide where to put the "stars."  You want to make sure that you don't place the star next to a fabric that is similar in color.  You need the contrast to make the stars stand out.

I've made the pattern before for my son but this time I used pretty teal fabrics with flowers in them to make it more feminine for one of my girlfriends.

I made a strip of patchwork for the back of the quilt to give it some visual interest.  I love how it looks going across the back of the quilt.  That's the first time I've even done a pattern on the back.  

I quilted it on my longarm with an overall random swirl pattern.  I love how it turned out.

Here's a photo of my friend receiving her quilt.  And guess what?  She loved it.  :)

 

Patriotic Carpenter Star Quilt

I didn't get as many quilts done this year as I originally had planned.  I'm not sure why; I did have a lot of time at home. (!)  There's still a few more days left and I might finish a couple more before the year ends.  

This year I wanted to make a patriotic quilt for my to be son-in-law.  He likes patriotic things and I thought the Carpenter Star would make a nice quilt for him.  

I started it about a month ago, hoping to get it done by Christmas.  I'm actually surprised that I did, but nothing else got made for gifts this December.  I didn't tell my daughter that I was making it just in case it didn't get finished.

I started by dividing the pattern into 4 quarters and made each quarter separately.  That seemed to work well because the quilt is fairly large.  It's only supposed to be a throw, but I think it came out larger than that.  I made each square 7", so 7 x 12=  approx 84" square. 

 It was bigger than I could work on with my sewing machine, so I had to use my longarm to quilt it.  

Here's a pic of Ginger helping me pin the pieces together.  She said that it was very comfy and gave her approval.  I hope that the recipient likes it as much as Ginger does!  :)

 

Mini Charm Star Wall Hanging

I've been wanting to make this wall hanging for about 2 years now.  I first saw this pattern in Pat Sloan's "Learn to Machine Quilt" book and really it.  I started this in January at my quilt retreat and today I am so happy that it is finally finished! 

For this project I used a lot of fabrics from the "Nest" collection.  I love these colors and they seem to go so well with my decor.  If you look closely, you can see a couple of the birds that I put in there to give it some visual interest.  :)

It seems like I did more ripping out seams than sewing in this project, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I didn't read the pattern very closely and had some issues with fitting the outer edges of the star to the inner squares.  But with the help of one of my quilty friends, I finally got it to work!

Here it is hanging on the wall in my family room.  I love how the colors coordinate with the room.  Thank you, Pat, for such a great pattern! 

Here is a pic me working on the quilt this week with my "helper" Ginger.  Today she sat on it while I hand sewed the binding onto it.  She gives her approval.  :)

Oh, My Stars! Quilt #7

 I've been wanted to put together a quilt with Pat Sloan's "Oh, My Stars!" pattern for a while.  I started this quilt for my son last summer.  I cut up a bunch of teals, greens, blues and grays for this quilt from some fabrics that I picked up in Houston at the Quilt Show a year ago.

I had to put the squares up on my design wall so that I could see where to fit in the gray blocks to form the stars.  Then it sat in my dining room (yes, dining room!) for about 6 months.  Finally one day, I put in the gray star points and sewed the rows together.

It certainly is not a hard quilt to make, but it does take a little planning on where you want to place your stars for the most impact.

I finished this quilt in time for Christmas and gave it to my son.  He loved it!  It's so nice to have quilts to cuddle up with that are made for you by your mom.  :)

I used the teal palate to coordinate with the teal afghan that I made him last year.  I machine quilted  free motion swirls for the quilt pattern, but if he looks closely at the quilt, I "wrote" a message in it near the the top corner that says, "To Chris, Love Mom."  Clever, huh?

Here is the quilt when I was putting borders on it at my quilt retreat in Oct.  Why is it so hard to actually finish up a quilt when it is almost done?

This is the 7th (if you count the Baby Quilt that I made last year) that I finished for 2019!  That's a new record for me.  :)

Now to get started for 2020...