Friday, January 8, 2010

Lone Star

Just before Thanksgiving, a friend at church consulted with me about an antique Lone Star and getting it turned into a retirement gift. I, of course, was willing to give my opinion and, as usual, I ended up with a new project. I brought it home and over Thanksgiving picked up some wide muslin to applique it on. Once the muslin was prewashed I pulled out the star and pressed it and discovered that there was no way it would ever lay flat.

The holidays were coming and I had a number of other things going on so I put off dealing with it. Push has come to shove and the quilt needs to be done by the end of the month so I pulled it out again the other day. Interestingly, it still won't press flat!!! That night as I was going to sleep I got the bright idea to take the 8 large diamonds apart, turn them and put them back together to see if that would help. I carefully removed the hand stitching and then hand-stitched them back together and it actually worked! Not perfectly but much closer to flat than before.

Yesterday I got the star basted onto the muslin and got started on the hand applique. I finished that up today and here is the quilt top.
Now I will put the rest of the muslin together to make a back and get started on hand quilting the star and background. Does anyone have thoughts on how the star should be quilted?

6 comments:

The Calico Cat said...

For the background, I always like to see wreaths - whole in the corners & halves in the triangles.

blanket said...

Nice and big flower indeed but what about the background white cloth...is that good enough to hold the flower.

Pat said...

That star quilt top is just beautiful. Lots of work, but great. Love the fabric choices.

Not Lucy said...

I can't take credit for the fabric choices or the work involved in making the star. I will just get to take the credit for the finishing.

Rosalyn Manesse said...

I remember reading in a book someplace that a lone star quilt "billowed up like a tent, but lay down well when quilted."

Corrie said...

You are amazing to tackle that quilt. I'm glad it worked out. What a wonderful gift.