Star Light, Star Bright!

I haven't been posting on my blog as often as I was and here's one of the reasons why:

This will eventually be a bed quilt with the lone star (or star of Bethlehem) centered on a black background. The star itself is not all pieced together yet, as you can probably tell from the main photo.

I have long been intrigued with the Amish culture and several years ago, the three of us took our motorhome eastward and during this trip, we were fortunate to visit Amish communities in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.  There are important differences which I won't get into here.  One of the trademarks of Amish quilts is the use of solid, plain colors--jewel tones--often on black.  As you can see, I am not using plain colors but instead, using some of the beautiful hand-dyed and batik fabrics that are available.

Another culture which has fascinated me more recently is the early Celtic culture.  This quilt will adapt themes from both the Amish and Celtic cultures.  In addition to the black background, four Celtic knots will be appliqued around the star.  I have to admit the idea is not my own.  I got the idea from a magazine I've had for years.  And I have made a similar quilt ten years ago when I was first quilting.  On that quilt, I used solid colored fabrics and I didn't have the Celtic knots and instead did handquilting.  My applique technique was terrible!  Though many of the points of the diamonds are not sharp, and the applique stitching is lousy, I have always been a proud of the quilt because it was the first quilt (and only quilt) that I made entirely by hand!  No sewing machine!  I didn't own one.  It amazes me that I was patient enough to cut out each of the individual diamonds for the star and piece them together by hand -- now I just strip piece with my machine and use a rotary cutter to cut the strips at angles-- much less time consuming.

My daughter has this first quilt now and unfortunately the only pictures I have of it were taken ten years ago with a very early version of a digital camera; I do not have the digital photos anymore; just two prints done on an old printer -- leaving much to be desired in the quality.  If I get the initiative, I'll see if I can scan it in sometime.  Anyway, now you all know why I haven't been writing on my blog.  Still writing poems though!  None that are ready for posting though!