The story of my biggest quilt (so far) & Blogger's Quilt Festival

this quilt was a long time in the process. I fell in love with the pattern in a magazine (Love of Quilting Summer '05 ?) but set it aside as something I couldn't do right then.

I knew that when I got around to making it, wanted to do it in different colors. The colors in the magazine were very pretty, but I wanted to make it mine, not just like the magazine. So I kept it on the back burner of my mind for a long while.

One day, while fabric shopping with my mom, my sister and and aunt or two, some fabric talked to me and I realized I wanted to make it in off white, red and blue scrappy. I went home with a bunch of FQs and bought more everywhere I looked...

I adapted the pattern as I really wasn't excited about the various little stars that Judy Martin had designed into the Jewel of the Prairie pattern. I made them all the same and then I cut back one turn on my Snail's Trail blocks from her pattern as well. Simplifying patterns sometimes helps me finish them :)

I worked diligently on the blocks and even worked harder at matching my points than I had ever done before. I loved what was happening under the foot of my machine! When I moved all the furniture to the edges of the room to lay out my top I just had to stare at it - it was HUGE! It is King Size - glad I have my trusty Voyager or it still might not be quilted!

Then the dilemma of how to quilt it. I'm still pretty uncomfortable with coming up with these elaborate quilting designs that are winning all the big shows. AND I really would like to use it on my bed (still haven't gotten up the nerve), so I didn't want it so heavily quilted that it would be uncomfortable to sleep under. So, I went with one of my favorite freemotion designs, the spiral. I felt this made the quilt sing...so I named it The Stars Sing.

I still need to get up enough nerve to put it on my bed. What if it gets ruined by The Boybarian jumping on top of it without taking his shoes off? What if it catches on the swirl detail on the bed and rips? Maybe come winter I'll put this one on...we'll see what My Army Guy says :)


To see MANY, MANY lovely quilts check out Amy's Creative Side Blogger's Quilt Festival: