Retro Giant Star Quilt

A few weeks ago I learned that a colleague and friend was facing some health challenges.  I've worked with him for several years and he's always looked out for me.  I think many quilters will understand that when there's nothing else you can really do, you make a quilt.  I went straight for my go to pattern for when I want a quick but beautiful quilt, which is the Giant Vintage Star Quilt Tutorial from In Color Order.

I wanted to make something masculine but cheerful, so I had a look through my stash and found the top print which has a fun retro kitchen vibe.  The colours in that fabric led me to the other fabrics and then Denyse Schmidt's Ladder Dot fabric provided the perfect serious base to let everything else shine.

 

You'll see that there were a couple of tweaks to get to the final quilt.  This was the result of a bit of experimentation and not settling for "good enough".

 

Sue Burnett quilted this on her long-arm for me, in record time. I dropped it off on a Saturday and she had it ready to be picked up by Wednesday.  I love the circle pattern - I think it works well with the slightly retro vibe of the quilt and it left the quilt super soft and squidgy.  The thread colour was a bit of a surprise - on the spool it is a slightly ugly brown/gold colour, but once sewn it transformed into shining loveliness that blended really well with all the fabrics (and it only shows up on the background like this when you get up close).

 

Of course, what would you put on the back of a comfort quilt other than minky?!  Has anyone else noticed that the blokes are particularly fond of minky?  Expect to see this orange chevron again - I have  a pretty big chunk left over from this quilt.

I machine stitched the binding on this quilt - it's not something I do often but I didn't have a heap of time.  I used my clover clips for this binding and they made a huge difference (I generally used the Red Pepper Quilts Machine Binding method, except with clips instead of pins).  I wanted to show the result - it's still nowhere near as neat as my hand stitched binding method.

I went to visit my friend this weekend and I think he was very pleased with his quilt.  He's on the mend and seemed to be feeling a lot better so I was very pleased too!

Quilt Stats
Pattern: Giant Vintage Star Quilt Tutorial from In Color Order
Finished Size: approx 62" square

Fabric: various

Backing: orange chevron minky from Spotlight

Binding: Dots and Stripes in Smudge from Up Up and Away

Pieced by: me
Quilted by: Sue Burnett

Linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.