Sibling Star Quilts
In July of 2024, we had a family reunion with my 3 sisters and brother at my brother Joe’s house in California. While we were there my husband pointed out that in spite of having 3 sisters who were quilters, Joe and Lori did not have any quilts.
So I approached my sisters, Sue and Jane and my daughter-in-law Kathie and suggested we make a quilt for them. My sister Sue said she would like one so then we all chimed in and decided to make a quilt for each of the 5 siblings and one for Kathie (an honorary sister). If you are going to make one block-- why not make six!
So we found a quilt pattern, Missouri All Stars Quilt, and we divided up the blocks to make. We each made 6 (and sometimes more) of the blocks. We decided to use Kaffee Fassett fabric (Sue and Jane had some in their stash) with a black background
From June to March we each worked on our blocks- sharing our progress along the way.
In March we met in Boise to put the tops together.
We laid the blocks out on the living room floor in six spaces. Then we began moving them around. Colorways came forth. Then we decided which ones we wanted and which ones to give to brother Joe and sister Janis (the non-quilting sister)
Once we got the designs together we had to add black sashings to get the tops together - this took some measuring and math. Kathie helped us out getting the right measurements!
Final step was placing the top on the design board and “auditioning” borders. Sue took the lead here with her artistic eye.
Each border was a little different.
Brother Joe, the Kubota tractor owner, got bold orange border
Kathie chose a smaller orange polka dot to match the polka dots in her stars with a black outer border
For Janis, we chose a pink border to highlight the pink in the flowers.
Susan decided to cut squares to use up scraps and made a scrappy border.
I learned how to make a flange border (blue) with a purple border to complement the purples in my quilt.
ROLES: As the time together went on, each of us began to show our role.
Kathie (the engineer) became the project manager helping us with what comes next!
Jane the Ripper - was the official seam ripper for those who made mistakes.
I was the one that kept the process moving- “don’t over analyze”. “Finished is better than perfect” and official photographer of course.
We ended our 4 day weekend finishing 6 tops. We decided to display them on the vegetable trellises along the garden fence! Quite impressive.
Sue took Janis, Joe and her quilts home and quilted and bound them.Kathie took Jane, my quilt and hers q home to quilt and I will do the binding. Kathie, bless her heart, finishing quilting my quilt for Mother’s day.
I created the labels to go on them.
In May, Susan, Jane, Nancy and Joe were meeting in Missoula to celebrate niece Kinsey’s graduation. We used this opportunity to present the quilts.
What a fun project to do across states sharing the love we have with each other and using our talents to bring joy (and a little cozyness) to all of us! Each quilt unique, like each of us but still similar as we siblings are.
