I have always loved quilts. A quilt was one of the very first purchases I made for my husband and my bed. It was a commercially manufactured quilt that did not hold up well. I did not know how to repair it and did not have a sewing machine at the time so it went off to the Goodwill. Over the 20 years that followed, I purchased many more quilts, again, commercially made, but none for our bed specifically. I used them instead for wall decor or kids bedding.
When I spotted that handmade quilt at the garage sale, the desire to have another quilt for our bed hit me. This particular quilt was in a color scheme that did not interest me but I inquired about the price anyway. The asking price was $25.00 which seemed like a rip off to the maker. It was a beautiful quilt and I could immediately see a huge difference in the amount of stitching it had vs. the store bought quilts I was used to. I strongly considered buying it even though the colors were not my favorites. But then I strongly considered making my own. One with colors and themes that were of my choosing.
I have been sewing for a living since 2002. I sew easy things with the rationale that I am legally blind and there will simply be things I cannot sew such as clothing. I tried to sew some clothing a few times many years ago. It didn't turn out well. So I quit trying. I simply didn't want to sew clothing enough to attain the skills to do it right. That is the truth of it. Well, the mentality that certain sewing projects were unattainable for me due to low vision changed last summer when I determined that I would learn to piece and quilt my own king-size quilt. (Yes, I made some nice clothing as side projects as well!)
I had many different ideas on themes and colors for our quilt. Cancer stole a young son from us nearly seven years ago and I wanted to make a quilt that would incorporate themes and colors he loved as well as themes and colors we love. In short, I wanted our quilt to be unique to my husband, my son and me. The colors I had in mind for this quilt were not colors I had in my current stash so while I waited for the correct fabrics to be in hand, I chose three fabrics I had a good supply of and went to work on a practice project.
I knew our quilt would have a star theme so I began by making one star block, then another, and another and another. I didn't want to make the same star over and over so tried to make as many variations of stars as I could using just the three fabrics. I ran out of fabric after completing 15 stars. What was once simply going to be a table runner had become a full-size bed quilt.
I loved making those stars and became very personally attached to them as I was sewing them. I even gave many of them names. I had Sun Star, Chevron Star, Wonky Star, Diamond Star, Angry Star, Band-Aid Star, Double Band-Aid Star, Stained Glass Star, and more.
None of these stars were perfectly pieced. I expected this would be the case going in so I did not get overly upset about it. I simply learned from each mistake.
My husband of 19 years was great at helping me trouble shoot many visual issues as they cropped up. A lot of my seeing is done with my fingers, especially for piecing. He helped me make some adjustments to my workspace so that I could see with both eyes and a few fingers too.
As I wasn't planning on making a bed quilt, I wasn't quite sure what to do with those 15 stars. My husband suggested we should use this quilt in our travel trailer, hence the name for this quilt is "Traveling Stars." This was a great plan because I had a surface in which to measure out the borders needed to cover the bed and finish the quilt. Trailer beds are really oddly sized and the bedding we were using did not fit at all so the idea to make this for that bed seemed brilliant.
Most of my star blocks did not measure close enough to simply sew together. My aim was to make 16 inch blocks and I had a couple of those and several more that were between 13.5 and 15.5. I decided to sew sashing to each block making them equal to the 16 inches. I then arranged them so the mismatches in sizes looked purposeful and when all was said and done, I loved the look of them. Two fabrics were added for borders and then I set out to quilt it.
Because there were wonky stars and some very odd seams, the quilt top did not lay flat to start. I did not know how to fix it so hoped I could ease some of this waviness out with quilting. Some I was able to ease out and some I wasn't. I was slightly disappointed but I learned what not to do next time. After this quilt was finished and washed, a good portion of the pleats are hardly visible to a well-sighted person, my husband.
I quilted this first with a walking foot. I cannot stitch in the ditch well at all - even with magnification. So I opted to stitch to the side of all major joining seams. I used a free motion foot in the outer border and for some of the stars with a lot of joints. I chose to use invisible thread so that my ugly stitches in free motion would not be so visible but quickly found out that the invisible thread was invisible to me as well. I could not see what I was stitching, or where I had previously been so that whole process was done by feel.
When I finished and turned the quilt over to the back where I did not use invisible thread, I found I had quilted in some interesting things. A decorated Christmas tree and several dinosaurs that my son (in Heaven) would have truly appreciated. I could not have done that purposely if I'd tried so it was a really special surprise.
I love this quilt. After it was bound, I could hardly believe I did it. It seemed surreal. Every time I see it, I cannot help but smile. And it fits the trailer bed perfectly!
Start to finish this quilt took about a month to complete. I began in August, 2014, and finished in September. And after that, I was absolutely addicted to quilting. I am now working on quilt #4 and #5. Posts for #2 and #3 coming soon.
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