Out with the old... Mom's quilt is out of hibernation again

Happy 2018 everyone. It is hard to believe that we are already into the second week of this new year.
It is always wonderful to greet a new year, full of possibilities!!
New projects to start and old projects to finish.

Mom's birthday quilt is out of hibernation again!! Firstly it needed a good pressing, so that part was easy. 

Mom's quilt was started in September of 2012 and has been in and out of hibernation numerous times. It took many months to piece all of the units but it certainly should have been finished years ago.

We just don't know what to do with it. The center is an eight pointed star that is paper pieced with all batik fabrics. I saw this star in a book and decided to make it into a quilt. That was the setup for the challenge right there. I have successfully designed lots of quilts over the years but none have been this challenging.

So when we have hit design impasses it has been put away and then it has been "out of sight and out of mind". However, this is the time to finish this quilt and enjoy the satisfaction that will come with completion of this quilt. No more hibernation!!

This lovely print is the inspiration for Mom's quilt. 

These are the paper pieced units that make up one arm of the center star. 

Mom designed the star from the units that I sewed.

Final layout for the star. 

Mom is working on designing one of the squares. This was March of 2016. I had all of the squares and triangles sewn around the star. I removed all of them so it would be easier to applique all these amazing shapes. 

I got an AccuQuilt die cutting machine for Christmas 2016. We decided it would be amazing to have applique squares and triangles surrounding the star. 

We got 6 of the 8 squares and triangles all ready to applique and decided we did not like it!! We decided the star should be the star. So I took all of the applique shapes off the setting squares and triangles and sewed them back to the star. Then I added the two borders below.

The top diamond border was the inner border and the lower piano key border was the second border.

We decided that we did not like the two borders because it made the quilt too big for the bed. So I removed both borders from the quilt and then from each other.

Next week I will bring the star top, the piano key border and some background fabric over to Mom's and we will try and come up with the ideal borders. This is the year we will succeed and will prevail.

More updates to follow. I can't wait to see this quilt finished and on Mom's bed. We will both be doing the happy dance when it's all done.