Blogger's Quilt Festival - Rainbow Star Revisit

If you are here visiting as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome! This is my first time participating, and I am looking forward to being inspired by everyone's favourite quilts.

I've been quilting for less than a year, but thanks to the wonderful resources available online and at my local quilt shop I've made tremendous progress in that short time and impressed myself quite a bit. Every quilt has been a learning experience, and I've received plenty of support from family, friends, and fellow bloggers. The Rainbow Star mini quilt I chose for the festival is the one that most reflects that support.

This quilt was made for the aunt who taught me to use a sewing machine when I was ten. Over the next couple of years, we made many things together: pants, vests, cushions, curtains, and a crazy elaborate gown with faux-corset top and a twelve foot hemline for a medieval themed wedding.

Throughout her life, my aunt has done a lot of sewing for herself and for others, but with retirement has come the switch to painting and piano playing. Since she is no longer sewing, she decided to offer me her entire fabric stash! Here's a small sample of what I brought home in my suitcase:

If you've been following my blog, chances are that you've seen quite a few of these fabrics make their way into my projects. See those Care Bears on the bottom right? That's an original series print from the 80's! I have a special use in mind for them soon...

As a thank you, I chose some solids to coordinate with my aunt's bright polka-dot print and jumped right in to a complicated project without a pattern. A few tricky diamonds and Y-seams later, I had a full lone star! It measures 30" square. Can you believe that I actually managed to align all of those points after quilting for less than six months?

This quilt was my entry for the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge in March. Here is a detail shot of the straight line quilting and stippling (my first on a real quilt). I absolutely love the rainbow binding as well.

As soon as I was done, I rolled this up and shipped it to my aunt with a thank you letter. She was very moved and has decided to hang it up even though it doesn't match at all with her décor. There will definitely be Sunbonnet Sue placemats heading her way eventually too as I continue to practice and improve.