My longarm quilter worked her "magic"

All freehand...no marking...every stitch perfect. What can I say???
Lisa Olinger is a magic quilter/artist!

Honest...I was ready to give up. My LA quilter has had this quilt since the end of February.

I had told her I was in no hurry but I did plan on entering it into the big show here in August.

Unfortunately, she did not remember me saying that.

She returned it just 6 days beyond the entering deadline. I still tried to get it in but they refused.

Oh well...maybe next time.

Considering I have never felt that my work deserved to be seen in a show of this magnitude, I am not missing what I have never had.
My LA quilter is Lisa Olinger...an amazing seamstress/quilter/friend. She did her magic all right! There are feathers all around each long legged star. A ditsy spiral in each star center. And she did such a great job. I am speechless.

The next show for the venue I wanted to enter in is in two years. Sigh! I will have to wait. In the meantime, the quilt looks great on my bed. I may have to use it this winter. DARN!

I just finished the hand sewing of the binding. I enjoyed every inch of the sewing. I really liked this quilt while sewing it. I am totally in love with it now.

My wonderful Hubby gave me a Collage photo program. It was really easy to use. The pictures above were taken in February 2010...the dead of winter...a sunny dry day. So I layed it in the driveway. I knew the driveway was clean as I had been shoveling it daily and knew every foot of that concrete!

I struggled with this design, Amelia Earhart by Kaye England. Not in the sewing of it; but she had the design just stopping and not finishing around the edge. So...this was my first time followers...I designed the edges to finish the design. It took me two days but was sooooo worth the time and effort. I do not know how Bonnie Hunter does it with designing quilt after quilt. I felt as if I was "birthing" a baby!

I used every one of the 47 fabrics that were in the quilt in the binding. All the fabric came from my LQS "A Quilt of Many Colors" in Leo, Indiana. The exception was the background toille', it was a stash find. I must have been saving it for this quilt! And I have been saving all of the fabrics from my stash using. They did make it into my last Postage Stamp Swap. I needed 50 different fabrics and here I had 47 all pressed and "together". Now I can work them into my future scrap quilts!

I cut one 10" piece of each fabric. That gave me lots more binding than I needed (470"). I needed 346 ".

But I wanted to err on the safe side. I have never done a binding with such short pieces. I love the effect! Only one corner had a seam really close but it all folded and behaved.

That is why I enjoyed hand sewing the binding on. I got to say hello to each fabric and tried to see if any of the same fabric was close to the binding. Some were! Almost like an "I SPY".

I AM clever enough!

I took advantage of an empty driveway and the afternoon sun to carefully lay out my top to show all of you the extended pattern.
I did it!
I struggled so with the concept but wanted the end result so badly!
This was way out of my comfort zone.
I follow patterns...not design them.
But now this quilt IS all mine!
We are waiting for 9+" of snow that is due to arrive late tonight. Groceries are all stocked up. I am planning on making homemade chicken and noodles. It will warm the house and the heart.

Amelia Earhart by Kaye England is now a top

Rough measurement is 83"X66".
It still needs a couple borders. I have in mind a muted stripe that I will add first. Then I am totally not sure what it needs. Maybe more of the toile' to finish it out.
I made it much bigger than the pattern called for. But have no star blocks leftover and only 2 of the alternate blocks leftover.
And for me that is a close call. I always make too many blocks. But this time I did have to piece 5 more star blocks to make it this size.
And I still have more material!!!!!!!!

This was my very first effort to make the long legged star. I use the EZ Tri-Recs acrylic tools. They work great. I just needed to keep track of the mirror images. After I got the hang of it...I was whizzing through the assembly.

I really, really, really like this color pallet. All the rusts play so very nicely with the background fabric.
This is almost in the orange color catagory, isn't it Bonnie???????

Just a little close-up so you can see a star and the alternate block.

Now my head is spinning wanting to make this in 30's fabrics.

I do have the crocheted white baby afghan all done. I have started a pale blue one that has pineapples and puffy cluster stitches. Already it feels really neat to touch the puffies. I can just see my new great grand baby exploring textures with his tiny fingers.

I am going through Bonnie Hunter withdrawal. I want to make every quilt in her new book. I have lots of 1 1/2" squares to play with. But a part of me wants to get my Featherweight out to work with those tiny pieces. So...that may happen.

Let us all pray that Bonnie and her quilting friends make it home ok with all the snow that is headed their way today!