Fireside Star Quilt

June 5th already?  Gosh, it will be September 1st before I know it!  Summer seems to be shaping up to be a busy one.  I think I will refer to this summer as Camp Hrcka.  Either dance camps or academic camps, the girls will be busy broadening their horizons.  Translation, I will be changing my name from The Quilted Pineapple to Mom’s Transportation Service. 🙂

Thought I would share another flannel quilt from Lisa Bongean’s new book Flannel Gatherings, which will be out next month.  You can preorder it from Primitive Gatherings here.  I am not saying it is my favorite in the book, but I think it is. 🙂  I know I say that all the time.  Fireside Star is a STUNNER.  That pretty much sums it up!

Love.  A star in a star in a star, what’s not to love?? Yes, if I could have kept this one, I would have in a second!!!!!!  I am sure you can tell I had a lot of fun with the quilting!!!!!! 

I love all the feathers, but my favorite has to be the quilted pinwheel blocks.

But feathers are a close second. 🙂

Wool batting really allows the quilting to shine!!  I used Dream Wool Batting and So Fine Threads from Superior.

I may have taken just as many photos of the back of the quilt as I did the front.  The designs created such a bold statement on the back.  LOVE it!!

All the quilting is freehand.  I used my curved Boomerang Ruler by Deloa Jones, Fine Line Curved Ruler and my regular straight ruler that came with my machine.  I did take a few as I was quilting photos.  It never ceases to amaze me how much a quilt takes on new life with the quilting.

After.

I did not premark the quilt before I loaded it.  I did chalk lines when needed as I was quilting.  My favorite chalk pencil is by Bohin.

 On the side of the photo, you can see the Bohin pencil.   I also use the Bohin Mechanical chalk pencil, which has a finer refill than the one in the photo.

Here I just freehand the feather spine.  No templates used.  I think I am getting pretty good at just eyeballing them. 🙂

I love this quilt for so many reasons.  I have had a few discussions with LB about designing some quilts that left space for me to quilt in.  Not ALL antique quilts were heavily pieced or appliqued.  Some antique quilts even look Modern, especially those antique Amish Quilts.  LB really hit my request out of the ballpark with this one! This quilt reminds me so much of a few of my favorite antique quilts I have seen over the years.  One of my favorites is this nearly 100″ square wool quilt that has just a large 8-point black star in the center of a cheddar background wool.  It is pictured in a book I own called American Quilts The Democratic Art, 1780-2007 by Robert Shaw.  I believe the quilt is dated between 1815-1825.  I am an awe of it.  It is simple and striking with amazing hand quilting.  A large quilt, especially for its age with tons of open space to quilt to one’s desire!! 🙂 A quilt like the one in the book or Fireside Star, depending on the taste of the quilter could look modern or like a reproduction.  Timeless.