New Orleans House Project

Showing posts with label Bonnie Hunter's Star Struck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bonnie Hunter's Star Struck. Show all posts

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Retreat to Stripes & Plaids

During my unplanned quilting retreat last week, I returned to a project that stalled almost two years ago.  After my father passed away, I decided to make memory quilts using his collection of striped and plaid shirts.  I initially completed 3 of the quilts and then got side-tracked into other projects.  As I re-arranged my sewing studio to make room for my new sewing machine, I came across the basket of shirting fabrics and resolved to get the remainder of the quilts made.
For the first two memory quilts, I used Bonnie Hunter's Star Struck and Blue Ridge Beauty patterns.  After those two quilts, I realized I could work more efficiently by using one size of HST unit and just making different designs.  I finished an additional quilt, a quilt center and lots of loose HST units before getting distracted by other projects.  
I started my re-directed project by adding a frame to the barn-raising style center medallion I had previously pieced.  The gold fabric is an antique map print - my dad was a geography buff.  When I was little, he would keep me occupied for hours by having me find countries, cities and geographic features on the world map pinned to my bedroom wall!  After adding the medallion frame, I worked out a zig-zag border.  The border isn't stitched yet, so I guess that's the next step.  The quilt top will be finished with another fabric frame or two.
Next, I thought I'd try a Carpenter's Wheel center medallion using the shirting HSTs.  In the stash I found a hunk of off-white with a small white design which worked nicely for the background squares.  I set the new medallion on top of the barn-raising medallion and decided it was a good plan.  I'll add a different framing border to the Carpenter's Wheel.  I might even try a different HST border, although I'm quite fond of the zig-zags!  I will make one more Carpenter's Wheel block (maybe with white background fabric?) and that will finish up the memory quilts for my dad's grandchildren.
 


Thursday, March 29, 2012

A Memory Quilt Finish

I put the last stitches in the binding of this quilt today, so I wanted to share one last set of pictures.  The quilt was in a blog post back in January, so I won't go into all the back story again today.  If you recognize the design as Bonnie Hunter's "Star Struck", you'd be correct!

Cindy Braiwick, a local long-arm quilter, did the quilting for me.  I told her my dad was a fisherman, and she had a lot of fun incorporating fishing and other water-oriented designs into the quilting.

There's more than one alligator in the quilt, but this one was the easiest to photograph - except where I cut off the end of his snout!
Great blue heron
A snippet of the quilt back

I have another memory quilt top close to being finished; hope to share it with you soon!