Stars for Dad

My dad died in 2002, and later that year or the next year, missing him, I saw this pattern in Quilters Newsletter magazine and wanted to make it in memory of him.  Named it Stars for Dad.  I am guessing I worked at it, on and off, for a year or so and then life got in the way.  And I was feeling better.  

The quilt is made from little nine patches incorporated into paper piecing.  I had no idea how to paper piece but I got that figured out.  I loved going to the fabric store in Lexington and getting little pieces of fabric, folded and stapled, for the nine patches, and I'm sure I got some of the reds and yellows there too.

I declared it done in my mind when it got to this size but I also didn't know how to quilt it, other than hand quilting, so I put it in a tub.  Moved it around to three new living spaces.  I'm glad I let it be, because I probably would have tried to quilt it in puffy polyester batting and it just wouldn't have looked right.  I have long lost the magazine with the picture so I don't know how the quilter did it.

A few weeks ago I spotted it in its tub and decided to just finish it.  Added the sashings, did the quilting that I couldn't have dreamed of all those years ago.  It really isn't wonky, just looks that way.  I would love to wash it but I'm afraid that the reds might run so I'm leaving it alone.

Quilting close up.  Finished size 40" x 30".

If you're wondering whether I have any other old unfinished quilts in the tub, the answer is no.  I think this is it for old unfinished projects.  Well, there might be one, somewhere, that I did start hand quilting with puffy polyester batting and later took out the quilting stitches.  I'll have to see.