Special Request

March 30,2015 my dad asked me to make him a quilt for his 80th birthday which was April 9. My dad is a two time survivor of kidney and bladder cancer. He has COPD and a heart ailment. His request HAD to be honored. So, I walked into the studio to figure out some fabric and my eye lit on those sawtooth stars.

My dad's favorite color is blue so those were definitely in. I was doing the happy dance because I had a bunch already sewn from retreat. Because I was making it, I decided it had to have my favorite color which is red. 

Red, white and blue. . .Hey, I won some BOM blocks at guild the previous year that were red, white and blue. This is a good combination! Then, I had this thought. . .why not have 80 stars for 80 years? Course, that means that I needed to make twice as many more!

This was a time sensitive quilt and quick, I am definitely NOT! I did work steadily on the piecing for about a month. 

These were the blocks that I had won.

I made about 13 more. They were 12 inch blocks so the sawtooth stars made the perfect addition to the design.

 Adding a whole row of stars to the top of the quilt was a great to add a dozen stars. But, I was four short. . .How was I going to get to 80? 












Take the six inch center out of those nine patch blocks and insert a sawtooth star was the solution!!!

Dad asked to have a few more stars in the quilt. So I pieced a few into the back.  During the whole process, I would chat with him and tell him how I was progressing. He really had no idea how long it takes to make a quilt!!

 This is the label.














 I quilted it on a friend's longarm. I am so thankful that she let me use her machine as I would still be quilting it on my domestic!! As it was, it took me a couple days. . .with her help!! The end of May, I gave it to him in a coordinating pillow case. He loved it! 

And it FIT!!! -- There's plenty of room for his white dog to snuggle too!