No shortage of photos here.............

Okay - it only took me a month to complete. Wow - that's hard to believe, but with family visitors and a week long trip - add in kids and you can hopefully see why I don't get things done super fast. I have realized that I don't like to rush my quilts anyway because I am a perfectionist and I want them to look amazing for my customers.

This quilt was pieced by Thelma, you can see her process for this quilt here. Let me tell you that Thelma is an incredible piecer - seriously STRAIGHT piecing. It really makes a huge difference for me when I quilt. So, great job Thelma!

Here's a description of the quilt by Thelma:

The pattern is called Nottingham Star by Grace's Dowry Quilts. The original pattern was done with blues, grays, beiges and browns. I substituted red for the blues and grays. It's also Lifetime Quilt Number 62 on my Lifetime Quilt List tab on my blog.

When I was deciding what to do on this quilt I remembered that Thelma had mentioned this quilt had a Civil War theme to it. So, I decided it would be best to get researching Civil War quilts and I ended up at this blog and found out that there are a ton of blocks out there that have meaning to them. So, I decided that I would take each square in the quilt and create a civil war block. I learned a few things and that the star block in this quilt is called the North Star. I never knew that.

The main design that I decided would work best in the center of the quilt is a block called Order Number Eleven. I drew the block in my EQ6 and created a template that would work for quilting this block. It ended up being my favorite block.

The stars were quilted to show the points. I didn't want to take away from the design of the star.

Here's a close up of Order Number Eleven. I absolutely love this quilting design!

Okay, as you can see - I have each of these nine blocks quilted differently. I had a total of 11 different quilt blocks for the quilt and I had to make a chart to make sure I got them in the right place.

You can also see that I created a border in each block. I wanted to focus on the theme of the Civil War blocks and if I had quilted to the edge of each square, then I wouldn't be able to accomplish the look I wanted. So, I came in each block at 1/4 inch and quilted the straight border before I quilted the rest of the block.

I think I kind of like it!

Now, are you wondering how long this took me? Well, each block took 10 minutes to quilt - that's 24 hours for just the blocks. The borders, thread change, and marking the quilt are a different story.

Let's just say that this quilt that is only 69" square took me over 40 hours of quilting.
Sometimes I think I am slow, but really - I am a perfectionist and I can't go any faster than I do.

I think the blocks that have the two sided Order Number Eleven are my absolute favorite. When I quilted the first one - I fell in love with how it turned out.

Don't you just love how these two come together?

Borders - yes, I love the borders. It took a little planning and marking to get these little beauties finished. It's funny how I hated math in school - I told my mom I was never going to use it when I grew up and now I depend on math to quilt.

I used my straight edge ruler for the zigzag lines, but the straight stitching and feathered design are all free motion quilting. Don't judge me if they aren't perfect - I'm no computer.

I love the back - I always do.

I really get attached to these quilts, it's hard to send them back. The only consolation that I get in sending them back to their owners is that I get paid. Hehe!

Here are my blocks and templates. I had to use each block as a reference, then I drew the design on the quilt and quilted it. I used 4 colors for this quilt - that's a lot of thread changing, but well worth the outcome of this quilt.