Lone Star Maniac

Eighteen months ago (Oct 2008) American Patchwork & Quilting published a pattern by Laurie Simpson and titled it Reach for the Stars.  When I first saw it I thought it was way over the top.  But the more I looked at it the more I liked the huge Lone Star going from binding to binding.  I have always liked Lone Stars and have made a couple over the years (when I get around to posting the prior history quilts you will see some of them including Glad Creations Lone Star in Ohio and Jan Krantz's wall hanging quilt).

About the same time the magazine came out, we were talking at Glad's about what should be the shop challenge for the January 2011 staff quilt show.  There were lots of votes for the Lone Star which I thought was a good idea.  Knowing that I had never made a quilt for my brother-in-law and his wife I thought this would be a great project and a perfect setting for her style of fabrics: Americana.

This is a giant quilt at 116 by 116 inches.  At one point I did figure out that there are 2144 diamonds in the quilt.  I started cutting the fabric for this quilt the first week of January, 2010 and had the top finished the last week of March. 

Initially I followed the designers methodology to the letter. However, I was having trouble with my seams not laying flat so I reverted to using Jan Krantz's method for putting the diamonds together.  Once I was in my comfort zone the quilt went together rather quickly and the top lays perfectly flat.  I certainly did get practice with set-in seams and eight pointed stars. 

I was very careful to maintain my quarter inch seam and block each diamond unit as I went along.  Once I laid down my painter's blue tape as my seam allowance fence I did not move it until the whole project was complete.  (I am lucky to have side access to my bobbin so I did not have to remove the tape during the 3 months that I worked on this top.)  Between the initial pressing and blocking the diamond units through out the piecing process I went through 3 cans of spray starch keeping everything stable.
My next step will be to make the back for this monster and then get it quilted.  That will be sometime after the Minnesota Quilt Show in mid June.  Since there is sooooo much going on in the quilt the quilting is going to be very low keyed....maybe just a serpentine along the seam lines and a little something in the minimal background.  Not sure.

I will make this quilt, or actually a variation of it, again in the next year.  I already have the fabric selected.