Stars Over Chincoteague

Another quilt from my guild's quilt show! (You can read about the show here: http://museumquiltguild.blogspot.com/ and you can see other quilts that I entered in the show in my most recent posts.) This quilt was inspired by our trips to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. My husband and I make frequent visits to the Lancaster area and marvel at the farms, gardens, and quilts of the Amish. The Amish are known as the plain people, but there is nothing plain about their quilts or their flower gardens. They are full of color. Amish quilts sometimes have a black background with solid colors used for the blocks, which are often primary colors or jewel tones.

The fabric for this quilt was purchased at Zooks, in Intercourse, Pennsylvania, which is probably my favorite fabric shop. I always look forward to shopping there and used to have an elderly Amish woman, Rebecca, wait on me. We struck up a friendship of sorts, and when I went there to shop, we talked about different things. Many of those things were the similarities we shared in our lives. She reminded me of my Aunt Mabel. Straight forward, no fuss, with a charming homespun sense of humor. Being that my grandfather, my Aunt Mabel's father, emigrated from Germany to Titusville, Pennsylvania, and then to Alexander, New York, we might be from a similar background, . . . or at least that is what I like to think! Rebecca isn't working there now. I miss her when I go there, but have fond memories of her. :-)

It was my intention to make this quilt by hand, without a machine. I started making the blocks while my husband and I were on a winter vacation on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. It was pretty slow going. My husband suggested we drive up to a fabric store on the mainland to see if they had machines to rent. It was a great idea, but they didn't have rentals. So, off we went to Salisbury, Maryland, where, instead of picking up a rental, I found a really nice little Bernina machine that had been used in classes and was on sale at a good price. It didn't have a lot of bells and whistles . . . just the basics, which is all I needed. That was in 2007. I still use that little machine often. I completed all the blocks a few years ago, but still had to put them into rows. I assembled the rows and made the inner and outer borders this year and finished it on my little Bernina.

The quilt gets its name from our nightly jaunts to see the stars while we were on Chincoteague. Being at the coast, we were able to see the stars at the horizon and overhead in the winter sky. It was pitch black out there! The nights on Chincoteague during the winter are more like the nights here in October . . . a little chilly, but not freezing, so we could just watch the night sky for hours!

Stars Over Chincoteague
75" x 75"
Pattern: Sawtooth Star
Book: Simply Stars by Alex Anderson
Machine Pieced
Custom Quilted by Chestnut Bay Quilting

Thank you for stopping by to read my blog. I hope you enjoyed reading about "Stars Over Chincoteague". I plan to write again later this week about other quilts that were in the show. Until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you and may He hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy