Finished Star Quilt

April 24, 2018

This quilt has been a long time in the making.

I first shared a tutorial on this Star Quilt top in May 2016. After that, I created a quilt back on the fly. It was not planned out. I used fat quarters and scraps of fabric to make it. It was lot of fun. To make the back I cut out large rectangles. On one or two corners of each rectangle I cut an angle. Then sewed the scrap fabric to the angled edge, making sure the fabric would cover the space. After I ironed the seam I trimmed the block back to its starting size. So quick and easy!

Basting the Star Quilt On A LongArm

I tried something new with this quilt. I was pressed for time when I went to my sister’s house to quilt a different quilt that I had to get finished. Luckily I was able to use her longarm. I didn’t have time to quilt both quilts. But a thought hit me… What if I use the longarm to bast my quilt! I attached the star quilt to the frame and basted it quickly using an extra long stitch. I decided that I would FMQ (free motion quilt) it on my domestic machine later at home, knowing that if I basted the quilt on the frame I would avoid bunching and puckering errors on my quilt back. This had been a common frustration of mine when I quilted on my domestic machine and bast with pins.

It stayed in this tacked/basted state for way too long. I was overwhelmed with the thought of quilting it myself. I took a class from Quilt Basket, my LQS (local quilt shop), with Cathy as my teacher. It was a great experience, I quilted three quilts after that class. I was pleased with how they turned out. However, I still had no desire to quilt this yellow star quilt. It had become my kryptonite. My cat, Pablo, decided it was her quilt. Making me put it away because if it was out, she was all over it.

Fast forward to 2018, post class with Christina Cameli at QuiltCon (Free Motion Textures B), and I am like yes, I can quilt a quilt with two different textures on my domestic machine. Pa-Pow!! I can’t lie, there are so many mistakes and I see how bad it looks, but this is a win for me. I stepped out of my comfort zone. This UFO is finished and will make a wonderful gift for my aunt. The best part is I got a lot of FMQ practice in. The only way that I can get better is with practice. I have soooo much more practice to do and I am excited about doing it.