The Original Eight Pointed Star for One Armed Quilter

This is the very first quilt of this style I created. The quilting was finished very recently.
The idea came to me when I was in a great deal of pain and couldn't use my left arm.
I was looking at a typical 8 pointed star with diamonds that require precision piecing.
A light bulb went on in my head wondering if I could used strips rather than diamonds.
Using my computer and Corel Draw I designed this with rainbow colors, the first available palette. I could see it would work.
I had strips precut and selected strips in a similar color palette and started piecing.

I was able to sew it with just one hand and as I sewed my arm improved and I was able to continue creating these pieces for the 8 diamonds.
I just happened to have the rainbow arc fabric I used between each section.
It was very successful and I have made several variations along with teaching the class to many students.
Since the background is black it is harder to see the quilting, but if you can enlarge it you may be able to see it.

Another 8 Pointed Star For One Arm Quilter

I finished several quilts in the recent past.
I have not posted them for various reasons: gifts, no time, etc
 
I have been fortunate to have Eileen Mirr do long arm quilting on some of my quilts for me. She is an expert at quilting spirals. I think they might just be her trademark because when my granddaughter Dana saw the work she did she knew immediately who quilted them.
A little on the history of this quilt design. About 20 years ago I had a frozen shoulder. It was so bad I could only move my hand about an inch from my side. The Doctor said it was the worst one he had every seen. He wanted to operate right away. I said NO and he recommended a physical therapist who was excellent. It woke me up at night with the pain. I was sitting at the table looking at quilt pictures and I say a star quilt made with diamonds.
My mind began to race and I though why couldn’t that be done with fabric strips. I rushed up to the computer and drew it up.
I had a lot of strips cut and make the first one in rainbow colors. I could sew the strips together with just my right arm. There is nothing like doing something to love to help one’s recovery. When it was time to cut the slices from the strata of sewn together strips I had healed enough to do that.
And the rest is history. I taught this as a class, but students were allowed to use both arms.

Eight Pointed Star For One Armed Quilter

I think this is one of the most stunning quilts I have created. It stops you in your tracks when you see it.
When I was dealing with a frozen shoulder about 15 years ago and couldn’t sleep I got up and created a prototype of this design. 
This one has never been finished as anything I think of to use to fill in the empty spaces takes away from the impact this creates.
I would love to finish it just like this to hang on a white or light wall but I think it would be a real challenge to hang.
If you read further you will see what I had to say when I posted it earlier.  I said I had planned on solving the dilemma soon but it still hasn’t happened.
With the huge solo show I am preparing for at present I don’t expect to resolve this for in the near future.
UPDATE: I  just checked and I actually started this 20 years ago! It is already 80-90 inches square.
This is one of my Eight Pointed Star For One Armed Quilter quilts. I am so pleased with it.
The problem is I am having a hard time choosing the background to put around it to square it off.
I had planned on using black but found that since the black on the star area is a printed fabric so it is different than a solid black.
I’ve considered using some other colors but I’m thinking they may fight with the graphic star design.
If I finish it with this shape it will be very difficult to hang on a wall.
I plan on solving this dilemma soon.

Design Dilemma

This is one of my Eight Pointed Star For One Armed Quilter quilts. I am so pleased with it.
The problem is I am having a hard time choosing the background to put around it to square it off.
I had planned on using black but found that since the black on the star area is a printed fabric so it is different than a solid black.
I’ve considered using some other colors but I’m thinking they may fight with the graphic star design.
If I finish it with this shape it will be very difficult to hang on a wall.
I plan on solving this dilemma soon.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this breaking news!

"And now, in accordance with tradition, I declare the XXI Olympic Winter Games closed."

If you read Emily Parson's blog you may be confused when I say this and you might have thought they were over already.

http://whatsthatgonnabe.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-own-little-olympics-closing-ceremony.html

The official name of this quilt is "I'll See You In My Dreams".
I have been calling it the Olympic quilt as it has taken an Olympic effort to finish it. The quilting of the star was the biggest challenge. After I had that quilted I thought it would be smooth sailing from there on out.
It didn't work that way. As I quilted the rest I was doing fine and didn't have any problems - until the thread on my spool of Oliver Twist got down to the last 1/8th of the thread on the spool.
From that point on it just kept breaking, particularly when doing free motion quilting.
When that happened I came up with some presser foot down quilting options but it wasn't long before it started to break again. That's when I changed to a new spool of Oliver Twist in just a slightly different color. That solved my quilting problems.

The edges of the quilt are finished with facings, rather than a binding. To do this well it takes a lot more time than putting on a binding.



This is the back of the quilt. I didn't have enough of the backing fabric to back the quilt so I added a pieced star in the middle and that gave me enough for a backing. You can see the facings made from the batik fabric around the edges. At the top you can see the casing to hang it, also from the batik fabric I used on the front of the quilt.

Whether you call this "I'll See You In My Dreams" or my Olympic quilt I hope you enjoy putting it together.