Going back to my quilting roots

Happy Spring everyone, and Happy April Fools Day.  Like many of you, I was fooled early this morning, and I did what every self respecting mother would do under the circumstances - I one-upped the original prankster.  It had me getting emailed messages from relatives far and near, but Life is good.

I recently had the chance to give my presentation on Challenge quilts to the New England Quilt Museum, and it was fun taking the material out and dusting it off.  The presentation talks about the thought process quilters go through in making a challenge quilts, a subject which has fascinated me since I began quilting.

Many of you might recognise this quilt as being my signature quilt - it's on my website, my business cards, my postcards.  This quilt is actually the second quilt I ever made, and the first one that I ever made for a challenge.  Here's a bit of a closeup.

It's from 1994, and I never did give it a name on the label. The strand of pearls on it is strictly for the photograph. The prompt on this challenge was to make a  star, and you were given one of the celestial prints to work with - that's the fabric in the inner border. 

I looked through patterns and magazines looking for inspiration, and finally settled on this - it's called by several names - either Lone Star, Starburst, Star of Bethlehem are some of the names I've since found when I was doing the research for this.  Why I decided to make a star with 200 pieces is beyond me; I think there was something about the graphic design that spoke to me. I machine (strip pieced) pieced the segments and then set in the Y seams to put it into the framework. I  remember hand quilting (?? was I nuts?) this piece all throughout my 5 year old's karate classes that spring.  It's still one of my favorite pieces.

It's also, come to find out, one of the most abandoned patterns found by quilt collectors - and it makes sense if you think about the technology (cardboard templates) used to make many of the originals. It's a good thing that I didn't know that back then.

Since this is the cornerstone of my Challenge presentation, it should have a name. All my other 'kids' have one.  Any suggestions? Post up your suggestions, and we'll see if we have a winner.  Also, let me know how your old quilts have fared...

More about quilt challenges coming soon!