Client Valentine's Day Lone Star

A week ago, with barely 2 weeks left of my kids' summer vacation, I decided it was time to load a couple of quilts and start trying to get caught up.  I avoid the custom quilts during the summer because they take much longer, and my windows of quilting time are short...1-2 hours.  I can have a custom quilt on the machine for over a week before it is done.  More than that, because we all know I have show quilts on the machine for several weeks at a time, I tend to just forget what I am doing if I only do a little bit each day.

This quilt was made by one of my very prolific Iowa clients, Erin, and it is only 54" square.  It is a relatively simple pattern to quilt too (and not forget what I am doing!). For those interested, it has a layer of Hobbs 80/20 batting and is stitched with mostly Glide thread.

 There is ample white background to showoff pretty designs.  She wanted a background reminiscent of my Zen Garden quilt (which has more going on in it's setting squares).  I have hopefully kept the essence of this quilt with the curved cross-hatching and feathers.  I chose a filler around these using hearts to bring some of the fabric into the quilting.  It is all about cohesion.

 The star is the show, so the quilting does not need to overpower it (that is what the neutral white aeas are for!).  I did a single row of continuous curves in the white thread through this area.

(Before...)

But after stitching this, I decided it was just not done.  It appeared underquilted compared to the background.  Using a pale pink and deep burgundy thread, I went back and doubled the curves, creating double continuous curving.  It is more textural and just prettier.  Now, I could have certainly quilted the star more heavily, but it just didn't seem to be the place for heavy quilting.  Sometimes the simpler route is really prettier.  FYI - these curves are all stitched with a 6" circle template.

(after...)

The center of the star lays beautifully.

 Lone Stars are a lovely and classic pattern.  She plans to use this either on a wall or as a decorative element on a bed.  I'd love to have the time to make some seasonal/holiday display quilts!!