Indian Summer Lone Star Quilt

This is the last day of the month, and I wanted to show you because November is Native American History month in the US.



I made this quilt for my sister, who recently moved from Texas to Arizona and wanted a quilt to represent both places. I was inspired to make a Lone Star when I saw this quilt by Amy of During Quiet Time.



Brief History lesson--The Lone Star became a symbol of Texas after the battle of the Alamo in 1836, but it's history isn't just Texan. The Lone Star quilt is called a "morning star" or "star" quilt by the Native Americans and they replaced the buffalo robes during ceremonies. Star quilts are considered the most-valued gift to the Sioux Indians and are given for births, marriages, sporting championships, and other momentous occasions. Ok, history lesson over. 

For my quilt, I used Art Gallery's Indian Summer fabric and used Moda Aqua for the background and binding. I used Kona Ash for the backing. I ran out of the ash fabric and I had to think of a way to use up some of the fabric I had leftover from the front, and made this feather. I love this feather almost as much as I love the star on the front.



The process of piecing this was kind-of a crazy nightmare for me. It started out good, and then points weren't matching up and things got really tricky. I'm working on another lone star and hope that I can correct the mistakes I made on this one.



To quilt it I followed the lines of the star from the center on all the rows of diamonds. I had it long-arm basted before I started, and I don't think I'm going to do that again because there was still too much slack but I will go into detail about that on another post.



Overall, though I think it turned out pretty good for my first lone star. I'm giving it to my sister to Christmas so it's off to the post office on Monday:)