November One Monthly Goal

Hi Quilting Friends,

My “One Monthly Goal” for November was to stitch down the binding on “Lone Star” and take her across the finish line. Ta-done, and we’re here today to celebrate!

It took me approximately 30 years to finish this quilt, but for at least 28 of those years Lone Star was neglected, sitting on the shelf in the depths of my closet.  I’d visit her occasionally to admire her radiant colors.  After examining her carefully, I’d gently fold her and return her to the shelf.  “No, Lone Star, not yet.” 

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Lone Star: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I don’t remember exactly when I pieced “Lone Star” or where I got the pattern. I’m quite sure that I made this quilt top sometime between 1989 when we moved to Odessa and 1996 when I began working part time following our return to Houston.

I set this quilt top aside when my time for sewing became more limited, due to working and raising my boys.  During the interim years, I made loads of quilts and quilted items, collected fabric, scraps, and tools.  I tried lots of new-to-me techniques, and honed my skills in this art form.

I took “Lone Star” out of the dark closet in May, 2024, when my retirement was finally in sight, and then we continued her journey to the finish line.

The first step I took was to add a narrow outer border of solid blue to ensure that those pretty star points wouldn’t get lost.  I’m happy to report that I had the foresight to set aside enough matching solid blue fabric for this additional border.

Usually, after 30 years, the extra fabric would have been used to make something else, leaving little hope of matching it when necessary.  However, I had hidden it from myself, folded neatly away inside the quilt top along with the matching red fabric for my binding. Yay me for doing this the right way, for a change!

I purchased batting and backing for Lone Star, since I didn’t have enough of either on hand, and I got her basted. The quilt is 85″ by 85″, so I needed a LOT of fabric and batting.

One regret I have is that I chose white-on-white print backing, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.  However, I ended up quilting everything with black thread. High contrast is fine when the quilting stitches are perfect, small, and even, but it shows every mistake that I’ve made on “Lone Star”, and I’ve made a few. It’s much too late to change it now, but I wish that I had chosen something else.

I started by outline stitching the squares and triangles that surround the pieced star and finished this  part in August, 2024. I should have started by quilting the star points, but I was a little intimidated by them at this stage and I needed to consider my quilting options first.

It’s nearly always best to start quilting in the center of a large piece.  I ended up easing in some excess fabric in a few spots later on because of this choice. It may be that my pieced star wasn’t totally flat due to tiny variations in my seams, or it may be that my quilt sandwich wasn’t completely smooth after layering and basting, resulting in a few small lumps and bumps. It worked out OK in the end, but I created some challenges that could have been avoided.

I machine-quilted the pieced star points because I didn’t want to hand-quilt through all of those seam allowances. It took some practice to work out how to make smooth curves within each triangle, but I got the hang of it after a little while.

A good thing that came from using this simple free-motion quilting (FMQ) design for “Lone Star” is that I realized I was finally ready to begin learning more FMQ “moves”.  FMQ has opened up a whole new area of quilting for me to explore, and I’ve enjoyed learning skills and “playing”. I wrapped up this section of quilting by the end of September, 2024.

Quilting on the squares that surround the central star commenced in November, 2024, and continued into August, 2025. (Obviously, many other projects were started, progressed, and completed during this interval.) I used four small feathered triangles to fill in each square.

I wish that I had been able to find or make a different quilting template for this part of the quilt, or that I had been brave enough to try FMQ instead. It ended up being a LOT of stitching, it took for-ev-er to complete, and I’m still not convinced that the design was the best choice for this part of the quilt. I really would have preferred a pretty feathered wreath, but what’s done is (finally!) done.

I began quilting the edge triangles in August, 2025, and wrapped them up in September. I really like the feathered triangle template that I used here! I’ve always loved feathered designs, especially when they’re hand quilted.

The corners were all completed in October, with two hand quilted feathered triangles and a feathered wreath on each corner, along with diagonal machine quilting at about 1/4″ spacing.

I used up the last of my black hand quilting thread on the last corner, and felt fortunate to find a spool of it at Michael’s. I’m trying to source supplies locally, now that JoAnn has shut down, and that’s a struggle at times.

I’m happy with the machine quilting here; it really helps the other motifs stand out on all that solid blue.

I’ve spent many hours stitching down the red binding by hand this month, always vigilant because Freya likes to steal the binding clips and eat them. She’s a scamp, and she doesn’t care.  Not even a little bit!

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Overall, I’m pleased with “Lone Star” and very happy that she is (finally) finished. Here’s another photo of the entire quilt, just because she’s so gorgeous.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading about my finish.

Happy quilting,

Sharon

P.S.  Do you have UFO projects that you’d like to finish?  Do you need motivation, inspiration, and encouragement to wrap up those half-finished quilts?  We’d love to have you join us for “PHD in 2026”, starting on January 1!  Subscribe this this blog or our newsletter to get updates. 😊

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