Donna sent me one of her tops to quilt. I felt honored that she trusted me. It is a Lone Star pattern by Nancy Zieman. To help me decide how to quilt it, I found the pattern on Nancy's website and studied how hers was quilted. I also happened to watch a Love of Quilting program featuring long arm quilter Angela Huffman. She talked about how she decided which quilting pattern to use, by breaking the quilt into sections and thinking about how each section made her feel about the quilt as a whole. Donna's quilt is quite large and it breaks easily into sections that can support their own quilting style. So, using pictures of how Nancy's Lone Star was quilted and advice from Angela Huffman, I decided how to quilt each part of Donna's top. I used thread that matched each section, and luckily my thread collection contained the colors needed, so no new purchase was required. The quilt had to be quilted one direction and then turned and re-mounted to quilt the borders in the selected styles. I don't remount often, but sometimes to do a better job with the borders, it's required. Because of the quilting style there were a lot of thread ends to tie and bury. It took a couple of weeks to make the quilt "unhairy".
And lucky me! Donna sent me the pattern and templates so I can make my own Lone Star quilt. I plan to do so very soon. I've always wanted to make a quilt with a center star and this one is pretty and also do-able! I can hardly wait to start it!
Size: 86" x 96" Queen size
Quilting: Quilted the outer purple border in straight lines. Used purple polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Purple Jewel"). Quilted the stars in the corner in a design following the star pattern. Used white polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Bright White"). Quilted the pink middle border in cursive "l's". Used bright pink polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Petunia"). Quilted the navy inner border in free form spiral designs. Used navy blue polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Navy Blue"). Quilted the white background in a free form, meandering loop-d-loop design (to tie in the loops in the pink border). Used the white polyester thread again. Quilted the designs in the center, star and "leaves" in the corners I. Straight lines that turned 90 degree corners (to tie in the straight lines in the outer border). Used the navy blue thread again. 11 bobbins total. Quilting by Patty.
Quilting: Quilted the outer purple border in straight lines. Used purple polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Purple Jewel"). Quilted the stars in the corner in a design following the star pattern. Used white polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Bright White"). Quilted the pink middle border in cursive "l's". Used bright pink polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Petunia"). Quilted the navy inner border in free form spiral designs. Used navy blue polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Navy Blue"). Quilted the white background in a free form, meandering loop-d-loop design (to tie in the loops in the pink border). Used the white polyester thread again. Quilted the designs in the center, star and "leaves" in the corners I. Straight lines that turned 90 degree corners (to tie in the straight lines in the outer border). Used the navy blue thread again. 11 bobbins total. Quilting by Patty.
Backing: Plain navy blue fabric--wide for quilt backings.
Pattern: "Lone Star" by Nancy Zieman from her book.
Batting: 100% cotton--Warm and White, because of the white background.
Binding: To be done by DonnaPattern: "Lone Star" by Nancy Zieman from her book.
Piecing by Donna. Binding by Donna.
The time frame:
May 23 ironed top and backing
May 25 pinned in bottom and batting
May 27 pinned in top
May 30 basted in top and measured to plan quilting
May 31 planned quilting
June 1 made 2 bobbins of white and 2 purple. Quilted top 2 corner stars with white and top border with purple
June 3 made 2 pink bobbins
June 8 made 2 navy blue bobbins. Quilted pink middle border (top portion). Quilted navy inner border (top portion). Quilted 2 leaf motifs in the corners of the center design. Quilted half of the star. Quilted part of the white background.
June 10 made 2 more white bobbins and continued quilting the center design.
June 20 made 1 more white bobbin. Finished quilting this direction
June 22 unpinned quilt, turned it, repinned to complete the side borders.
June 24 finished the quilting. And then all the time to tie thread ends and bury them.
This took quite a while. Thank goodness Donna was very understanding about the time frame.
Picture I studied from Nancy's web site
Tying and burying the thread ends
The top
The back
Location:County Line Quilts
