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Thursday, October 11, 2018

Friendship Star Baby Quilt

Every year my husband and I travel south in January.  We live in Petersburg, which is located on an island in Southeast Alaska.  The only way to get on or off the island is to fly or take a boat. We pack our truck with our dog and necessities and travel to either Prince Rupert, BC, Canada or Bellingham, Washington on the Alaska Marine Highway System.  Once we get to the mainland, we drive to Anacortes, Washington and pick up our 5th wheel trailer and head toward the sun.  Last January I packed a small tote with quilting projects so I could sew along the way.  The trip to Bellingham is 2.5 days and it can be pretty gray outside and uneventful, so a quilt project is perfect for the journey.  I made this friendship star on the ferry between Petersburg and Bellingham.  Once the top was finished, it went into a bag and put in a safe place.

I pulled this friendship star quilt out of the UFO pile recently to get it ready to quilt.  




 I chose this lemony yellow and white dot for the backing fabric.  Don't you hate it when this happens.   This quilt was about 45 inches wide and the fabric is 42 inches wide.  I didn't want to cut another piece of fabric for just 3 inches, so I decided do a little piecing for the backing.


I pulled out my my stash of '30's reproduction fabric, which is pretty limited. 




 As I was digging, I found these 2.5" squares.  I decided to make a nine patch strip with the squares.


 I put the strip right down the middle of the backing fabric.



I layered the batting and quilt onto the back.  I folded the batting and top in half and put the center fold on the center of the 9 patch strip.  This quilt is ready to go.  It is back in the UFO pile-but it's ready.




13 comments:

  1. This is one of my favorite blocks. Your quilt is very nice.

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  2. What a great idea for the backing. That's going to be a sweet quilt.

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  3. Do you stay south during the winter?
    I almost always have the same problem with backing - just an inch or two short. I love your patchwork solution so much better than my usual solid piece of coordinating fabric!

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    1. We spend a couple of months tooling around the Southwest and SoCal. Baby quilts are always just a little bigger than the width of fabric aren't they.

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  4. What a sweet quilt and the perfect (scrappy) solution to the backing dilemma!!

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    1. Thank you. I hope it doesn't bunch up in the quilting.

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  5. What a cute fix for that too small backing. And it used up some scraps :)

    Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

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    1. Yes, I love your scrappy solutions too. Thank you Cynthia!

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  6. I felt so daring the first time I added a contrast strip to lengthen a backing. Now I piece backs all the time. The friendship stars are cheerful and you got to use those stashed squares!

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    1. This is my second pieced back. I usually just put two pieces of backing fabric together. I need to practice some more pieced backs because it saves on leftover yardage.

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  7. Wonderful solution for the backing. It complements the front perfectly. I love to do pieced backs. For some reason they baste together with the other layers for me better than whole cloth.

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  8. Ingenious!!! Elegant solution indeed. Not only is it functional but adds so much interest to the back. Love the simple design. You must be so happy with this one!!!

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