Posted By drsao on September 7, 2008
About a year ago, four of us (Ginger, Marla, Sherry and sao) decided to collaborate to make a quilt to donate to the wonderful folks serving in the military. We went to Quilter’s Corner and picked out fabric to make a LUCKY STARS QUILT. However, because of LIFE it became ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ to get everyone together at once to collaborate on the sewing part! 🙂
So we decided to pass it along from one person to the next. Last week I got the STAR POINTS ALREADY MADE and the rest of the fabric – my turn to work on the quilt. I got out the pattern and cut the pieces for the rest of the quilt. AND THEN…..the funniest thing happened. Well, you have to have a DIFFERENT sense of humor to think this is funny – but I ran into SNAG NUMBER ONE. There didn’t seem to be enough fabric. OK – I solved that, I was making a PEACEFUL HOURS QUILT and the MODA PIECE AND PLENTY BOM Quilt with the same fabric and I always buy extra, so I just decided to use some from my stash.
Merrily I went along – but then SNAG NUMBER TWO happened……none of the pieces fit together. Now I am really laughing (sometimes I get silly at inopportune times – and well, it was 1 AM, so my brain was on its FINAL HUMOR CYCLE!) OK – I figured it out…..the STAR POINTS had been cut and constructed for the LARGE STAR BLOCK and our pattern was for the SMALL STAR BLOCK.
So, after consulting with Ginger, we decided that I should create a new setting….and I was THRILLED because I LOVE to make things up and I really DO NOT ENJOY following directions….LOL. So this is how I came to name the quilt the LUCKY STARS DETOUR (now this is just MY NAME for it – there has been no group discussion, much less consensus, so it may not be the QUILT’S REAL NAME. 🙂
So this is the block that I came up with…
Block of the LUCKY STARS DETOUR
I thought that I had enough fabric to make 16 of these, so off I went – sewing happily until the wee hours of the morning. When I achieved my color layout I was feeling pretty happy – and Oreo seemed to like it too. Something told me that I should have closed the door, but I thought the three cats were sleeping! I was wrong…..Oreo was just waiting for a quilt to lounge on….or a quilt piece to lounge on!
Oreo on the LUCKY STARS DETOUR BLOCKS
Oreo seemed to be pretty calm and wasn’t SURFING on the blocks so I left the room – JUST FOR A MINUTE. When I came back, dear little Cuddles Tinkerbelle was having HER TURN trying out the NEW QUILT. Don’t you just love those INNOCENT – WHO ME looks?
Cuddles Tinkerbell Lounging on the LUCKY STARS DETOUR BLOCKS
With the blocks scattered everywhere and the clock ticking along past 2 am, I decided to put it away until the sun came up and the cats went to bed! With the dawn and a few hours sleep, I got the 16 blocks laid out….YEAH. But alas, SNAG THREE, it was 64 x 64 – not quite large enough to be called a twin size quilt! I really like it…and just for the record, the fabric that looks pink in this picture is actually red!
Sixteen Blocks of the LUCK STAR DETOUR QUILT
I love the creative process…..I had limited fabric to work with and I needed to add some length to this quilt. I had always wanted to try some FOLK ART LETTERING……Tonya – a quilter living abroad had some examples of WONKY FOLK ART LETTERS on Bonnie K. Hunter’s Quiltville.com blog. I took a look, but as we all know, I don’t like following directions – so I just decided to make my own letters.
After doing paper piecing for my DEAR JANE QUILT I figured I could just draw some wonky letters and make them the 3 1/2 inch height of my sashing blocks…and voila…..a border was about to be born! I decided to do I LOVE THE USA because AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL or GOD BLESS AMERICA had too many letters and, hey, I wasn’t sure that I would even LIKE making these letters. 🙂
SAO Holding the STAR DETOUR QUILT with the FOLK ART LETTER BORDER
I am smiling because I am really happy that I tried these wonky FOLK ART LETTERS. I not only liked making these letters, I LOVED making them. It is going on my list of FAVORITE THINGS…….I imagine that I will be making a quilt of my own soon – with WONKY FOLK ART LETTERS.
I asked my son-in-law, Greg, if a guy would like this quilt. Since Greg is an ex-Marine, I thought he would be a valid source of information. He said that it would be good for a military male – and my daughter really wanted the quilt for herself – so I figured I had both genders covered (NO PUN INTENDED.)
So having collected two “TOTALLY UNBIASED OPINIONS,” I feel pretty good about this quilt. LOL
The LUCKY STARS DETOUR QUILT TOP
LUCKY STARS DETOUR QUILT TOP
In this last picture it is easier to see the bottom border of the quilt! Even standing on a chair my arms weren’t quite long enough to hold it high enough to keep it from draping on the floor!
And now it moves to Ginger who will get the back ready and then Valerie of A NEEDLE RUNS THROUGH IT will quilt it for us……it should be keeping someone warm by Christmas! I am glad that we did this and I must say that I had a GREAT TIME working on it! I love the challenging of making things up and I had fun making the LETTERS – learning new things is on my list of FAVORITE THINGS ! 🙂 Ginger is like me and doesn’t like to follow directions (REBELS UNITED) – so it will be fun to see what she does with the back!
Category: Cats and Dogs Furry People, Lucky Stars Detour, My Favorite Things, NEW THINGS, Quilts in Progress, Worthy Causes |
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