Utility Stars in Blogger's Quilt Festival, Fall 2018

I'm excited that it's time for Amy Ellis's Blogger's Quilt Festival :: Fall 2018 Edition.  I look forward to this all year so I can see all the other quilts in the Festival.  And, of course, I always hope I'll have at least one quilt to include -- and this year I have two.  If you have a quilt to share and have a blog, you can participate, too.  The Festival runs all week.  Many thanks to Amy for hosting the Festival.

I call this quilt "Utility Stars."  I wanted to make a calm, soothing quilt--and prove to myself that it could be just as beautiful, though in a different way, as quilts with lots of colors.

I am always so pleased when I put that last stitch in the binding of a quilt.  It gives me such a sense of satisfaction.  Next, I lay it on the floor and measure it, then toss it in the washer, then into the dryer, then measure it one last time.  Truly done then!

This has been a hard quilt to photograph.  The photo above was taken inside with a flash; the ones below outside.

I used JoAnn Soft 'n' Crafty batting, 3/8" thick, 80% cotton/20% poly.  I used thread I had on hand--it was probably rayon--then ran out and bought a spool of cotton.  I wasn't sure the shrinkage would be the same after washing and drying.  I left safety pins in the blocks that had cotton thread but couldn't tell any difference between those and the others after the quilt came out of the dryer.  Whew!  That could have been close.  I should probably be more careful about thread from now on.
 
The measurements of this quilt were crazy.  And how about square?  How is it one starts with square blocks and ends up (after quilting) with a quilt that is off by 1/4" to 5/8"?  I squared the corners as much as I dared but I suspect the quilt does not yet have precise measurements.  No matter:  it will never be in a quilt show to be evaluated.  After wash and dry it measures 60¾" x 78½".

At one point during the quilting it occurred to me that this quilt looked like it could have been mass-produced and sold in a big box store, probably because of the plain diagonal rows of stitching in the center of the blocks.  I convinced myself that no, it couldn't, because of all its imperfections. 

I love the texture these quilting lines created and the puffiness between the stitching.  Those should create lots of air pockets to keep the warmth in on a cold night.  I used masking tape from corner to corner for the first stitching lines, then quilted the other diagonals "free-hand," so to speak.  They are not all exactly, evenly spaced.

You can't really tell it from any of the photos but the binding is about ½" wide.  I thought about an even wider binding but decided this was the best width.  You can read about my wide binding woes here.

And here it is with the early cherry blossoms and sunny shadows.

Again, visit Amy Ellis's post, Blogger's Quilt Festival :: Fall 2018 Edition, to view all participants and to link your own quilt's blog post.  Thank you, Amy!

--Nancy.
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