Stars and Scraps Forever Returns Home

So did you get your copy of the newest issue of American Patchwork and Quilting?  Did you see our quilt?

We got our courtesy copy along with our quilt, Stars and Scraps Forever, sent to us.  The issue is a pretty good one.  I love our quilt (of course) but I love the cover quilt too.

We can have quilts in magazines time and time again but it never really quite seems like it happened until the quilt and the magazine are both in my hands together.  Isn’t that silly?

Well here’s the quilt….It’s hanging off my front porch.  I’m going to have to work to find places for quilt photo ops here at this house.

This was on of the first truly scrappy quilts that Kelli had sewn.  We had been to Country Threads in Garner (now closed) and had bought a couple bags of scraps that were filled with blue fabric.  There were all sorts of blues there-dark, light, medium, larger scale, Civil Wars, Thimbleberries, fabrics from the 80’s.  Truly every kind was there.

Fast forward about six months.  I had designed this quilt and Kelli wanted to make it.  She said she had scraps at her house and wanted to get working on it.  I didn’t think anything of it.  Once the top was done she brought it home and I groaned.  UGH.  I hated it.  I couldn’t figure out why she had put such a wide variety of blues together.  I was frustrated that she mixed what I percieved to be tans in with the whites.  I said-“Wow, that was fast.”  I didn’t want to hurt her feelings but I didn’t like it at all.

The top hung and hung and hung waited for me to quilt it.  I really didn’t like the color.  Finally well over a year after she finished the top, I quilted it.  I was so frustrated, I just used a sheet for the backing.  I had two twin sheets that were the same color so I seamed them up and loaded it.

Then I couldn’t bring myself to just stipple it so the stars have custom quilting and the rest is stippled.  As each bobbin emptied I liked the quilt more and more…still I wasn’t crazy about it.  I had red thread for the top and it really was growing on me.

As the quilt finished and I unrolled it off the machine, I knew we had a winner.  I not only liked it, I LOVED IT!  I immediately sent a picture to Kelli and we immediately said we have to send the quilt to a magazine.  It’s perfect for a scrappy patriotic quilt for a summer issue.  We sent the picture below to American Patchwork and Quilting and immediately we got a “yes” back from them.

I quickly bound it and got it ready to send it off.

That’s when I remembered we had a sheet for the backing.  UGH.  I use them all the time for charity quilts (100% cotton ones).  I even have used them on a few of my own….but ones being sent out.  NEVER.  I know some people are picky about that even though I am not.

As I was looking at the back..something even worse.  Although the two sheets that I had sewn together were the same color, the sheets although 100% cotton were a brushed type cotton and the way I sewed them together there was almost a nap to them and it didn’t match.  Oh well…too late.  The deed was done.

…and that’s the story behind the quilt.  This quilt really has a Cinderella story…I went from dud to magazine worthy.  I’m just sorry I didn’t see the quilt for the beauty that it was right from the beginning….anyway, run out and get your copy.  This quilt can really bust some scrap…and I know many of you have stashes like me just waiting for the perfect quilt.

We are hooking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Link a Finish Friday.