"Shirley's Stars" - A Tribute to my Grandmother

 

My grandmother passed away in October, and I miss her every day. When I was smaller, I would sleep over my grandparents' house; she taught me how to play Solitaire and War. We played many games of Scrabble, too. When I was older, she was one of the family members who took me to my first Broadway show (Peter Pan, when I was 10). Grandma loved anything and everything to do with Broadway musicals, and she attended many of the shows I was in throughout high school and college. I know my experiences and memories of her are just a small part of her life and the effect she had on so many people.

With my grandparents at my wedding, October 2012

 Grandkids and grandparents, Father's Day 2014

Father's Day 2014 - Grandma and I

Grandma also loved needlepoint. I never saw her actually work on one, but they were all over the house. Whenever I showed her a quilt I was working on, she would tell me about her memories of hand-stitching white stars on blue fabric with her sister. She lamented not knowing what had become of the quilt, but she was keen to pass on the story.

 

The weekend after she passed away, I was at my LQS for a guild event. I felt like I needed to work through my feelings with the best therapy I know - sewing. I knew I wanted to give something to my grandfather for Hanukkah.

The blue and white is meant not only to mimic Grandma's quilt, but also to commemorate my Grandfather's status as a veteran. The many different stars were an experiment with alternate gridwork and my internal negative space regulator (this is surely the most I've ever left on a quilt!). This quilt was also my first all-solid quilt.

I drew the quilted star (like above) on paper first, pinned it to the quilt, and traced over it with my FMQ foot. Then, I added some extra interest/movement by making them "shooting stars." I'm really pleased with how the quilting came out. It carries a simple design (stars) to something a bit more complicated.

 

Stars in the quilt: two Ribbon Stars from Fresh Lemons Quilts, a fragmented star featured at Night Owl Quilting, two Friendship Stars from Generations, and a Drunken Star from Pippin Sequim.

The whole thing is bound and backed in Joel Dewberry's navy Herringbone. It was a perfect match to the American Made Brand solid (loved the color of AMB but not the extreme lintiness!).

 I was anxious to present the quilt to Grandpa at our Hanukkah celebration last week and tell him the story of the quilt. I'm so glad he likes it. I think Grandma would have loved it, too.

 Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, A Lovely Year of Finishes (this was my December goal), TGIFF.