NO COBBLER ELVES HERE-

I know I haven't posted in awhile but I have a very good reason!!  If you have been following along, I went to Market in May and the summer has just been a whirlwind of activity since then...

Dear friends from our past came to visit.  Then our sweet daughters came to visit with their boyfriends...SO much fun!  The second week in July my brother and nephew came to visit and it was great to catch up and see my brother as a father!

 

The week before my brother came to visit, I decided that my husband and I deserved a new quilt.  We have a sort-of comforter that I made back in 1995 before I knew how to quilt.  The applique is awful and the binding falling off, not to mention that it barely fit a queen and we now have a king.  What is that saying about the Cobbler's family.......?



So that week was spent pulling out a design of mine that is a variation of the block from Vol 7 of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. I proceeded to get all the fabric cut for 20, 18" blocks that would be paper pieced.  I did have to buy some yardage but I had about half of it in my stash plus some of the fabric left from the original quilt from 1995.  This would be my first attempt at a scrappy quilt and you will see that it is very controlled scrappy!  Even with the preplanning, I had a hard time letting some of the fabrics fall where they may.

After my brother left, it was time to get to work chain piecing all the parts for my blocks.  It was now July 15th and I had to have this to the quilter by Aug 3rd.  How about a shout out for overestimating your abilities....
Did I mention that I was doing this as a surprise for our Anniversary and that is why the deadline! I felt I had plenty of time but between company and then my husband taking time off every time I turned around, I started to panic.  I only had weekdays to work and he was cutting into them.... 

 I even started a second quilt as a decoy quilt so that if he asked what I had been up to all day, I could say, "see!".  How crazy is that??  Now I have to finish that too but I do love a deadline for getting lots done!

 

Here is one of the blocks placed together to see if I like where the fabrics are falling. 

I was able to finish in time (actually a day early) and sneak the quilt off to the quilter on a workday on my way home from guild to avoid suspicion.





When it came home, I was just blown away by how perfect the design was.  When Kathy showed me the design on the computer, I just couldn't see it on the blocks.  It gives a sort of celestial map feel to the quilt. (The colors are right in the above photo and a bit too light in the detail photos if you are wondering.)

In the above photo, you may recognize the fabric with the gold stars in it that is in 3 of the corners.... That is the original fabric. 
In the below photo, you may be able to see the circular design the quilting gives.  Thank you, Kathy and John, of Cape Haze Quilting for getting this done for me.

 I was able to bind it and label it and surprise him!  There are 24 total or partial stars on this quilt.  The label makes the 25th star to commemorate our 25th Wedding Anniversary.  I love you Jim with all my heart and am very proud that we made it!!!  Now we can sleep under the stars every night!