The Friendship Star Quilt

One of the ladies in my stitching guild moved to Florida this year. She was the editor of our newsletter (for so many years) and very active in the quilting interest group. We, the interest group, decided to make her a gift and invited the guild at-large to participate if they wished. We weren't sure if we'd end up with a wall quilt, a bed runner, a lap quilt, or even a queen-sized.

The rules were simple:
* make a 9.5 inch Friendship Star block (9 inches finished)
* use purple in the quilt block somewhere
* sign your name and/or personalize the block with embellishments of your choice

If someone wanted to participate but didn't know how to or have the time to sew, then if they provided fabric one of us would make their block. I personally sewed eighteen of the blocks. The one below is my block. I cut the tulip applique from a piece of fabric another member purchased for her block. She told me to keep the rest in exchange for sewing it.

The organization of patterns, instructions, etc and getting blocks made/collected was largely my project. After I tore up my back and shoulder in July, the piecing, quilting, and binding fell to the interest group's chairperson. I think she did a lovely job. I've blotted out faces to protect identities, but the lady on the left in pink and black is the recipient. She was back visiting at the last General Meeting and we presented her with the fruits of our labor. The lady in the right in green is the talented chairperson of our quilters' group and did the lion's share of work on the quilt itself.

As you can see, a couple of people missed the part where we were using a specific block pattern and did their own thing. We chalked that up to "personalizing their blocks" and rolled with it. Another lady used the pattern instructions, but arranged the pieces to create a "disappearing" or deconstructed star instead. I'm not sure if that was intended to be different for the sake of being different or represent our friend moving away, but either way I think it's lovely.

There were four blocks left over from piecing the top. By this time I'd recovered enough to turn them into pillows that match. Here'e the fronts and backs after quilting and before I finished the pillows. They happen to be four of the blocks I made. Two blocks (top and bottom right) were done for ladies who wanted to participate but had severe health issues. The other two (top and bottom left) were done in memory of two members we lost within the year.

After I'd pieced the pillow sections it dawned on me I didn't know how the quilting on the quilt was done or what color thread was used, but after a phonecall I was in business. Meandering and lavender were the keys, so I let my mind drift whilst my machine did the work. Apparently I was thinking about my time in university because the quilting ended up looking a lot like topographic maps! ;-)

Each stupid zipper had issues... that took about three hours per zipper to contend with. The results were worth it though. Incidentally, the fabric used in between the light purple solid and the white tone on tone is the quilt backing.

This project was a lot of work and a long time in progress, but it was full of love and the look on our friend's face was totally worth it.