Star Blanket

I have appreciated the beauty of the traditional star blankets for a long time, but up until now have never had the opportunity to work on one.  I was very excited when Shirley called to see if I would quilt this one that she was making for her son.  

This quilt is a graduation gift for Shirley's son who will be going on to study Natural Resource Management in the fall.  She wanted simple quilting, so we decided on ditch stitching the star section (which would traditionally be done by hand), and a large water meander for the background.

Shirley provided a extremely lofty batting, and I almost couldn't fit the quilt roll in my machine!  I wasn't able to use a ruler for the stitch in the ditch work, as my foot could easily slip over the ruler due to the thickness of the batting, which was dangerous to the ruler and my hand.  It is a good thing my Innova tracks so easily in all directions as I free-handed all of the star section.

I outlined the motif in the top and bottom borders for a simple finishing touch.