Aloha Hunter Star Quilt - Finished 10/05/2011

With fabrics named like these made into a Hunter's Star quilt, how can one go wrong?

1. Aloha Beach Sand Waterfalls - inner border
2. Aloha Red Passion Fruit Sea Grass - main fabric & outer border
   
3. Aloha Pineapple Waterfalls - 2nd main fabric
   
4. Bamboo Rock Candy - background contrasting fabric

I am making this for someone I have known now for eighteen years
without whom my life would not be the same.

Jun 2010: I picked up these fabrics last June (2010) to make this quilt much like my Blue Hunter's Star quilt, This time I am using a different template so the stars will be smaller. I learned my lesson that there needs to be a distinct light-dark flow to the fabrics for things to pop. The Rock Candy intended for the backing will serve this purpose nicely - I hope!! A suitable backing should not be hard to find when the time comes. I will use Dream Puff batting to make it extra light weight & extra warm. Just need to decide on a low density IQ pattern to quilt it. Oh! And find the time!!!
Aug 25, 2011: Cut the 60 blocks thus they are ready to sew.
Aug 26: Piecing today. The angle seams are giving me a run for my money. Dogged determination comes in handy! HA! Finally figured out a way to get my seams exactly like I want them!
Aug 28: Half blocks are done.
Aug 29: Block are done but need trimming
Aug 31: Blocks are trimmed...twice. Quilt will be slightly smaller (56.5" x 83.5") than planned (58" x 86"). Blocks are stacked in 2's and I begin sewing them into a quilt top tomorrow.
Sept 01: Connecting the blocks today. Making progress but not finished yet. There will be ten rows of six blocks each. Almost through with forming the 10 rows.
Sept 02: Got the rows together. Joined two pairs of rows. Have 9 more seams like this matching 13 points on each. All I need is time & lots of it.
Sept 03: Have pairs of rows sewn.
Sept 05: Finished joining the rows and added borders thus the quilt top is finished. Planning a trip to Greensboro on the 10th and will pick out a fabric for the backing while there. Meanwhile, I need to come up with an idea for the quilting design. Hmmm.

Piecing

Sept 09: Got the backing fabric. Several customer quilts need to be longarmed before I can get back to this one or any of mine.
Sept 19: Pieced the backing.
Sept 28: Made a quick sample star to test the IQ pattern. When I couldn't envision how the quilting pattern I am considering would look, I did a quick sample. This is the fastest, make no effort to do it right, piecing I have ever done. Not bad, huh?
Sept. 29: I woke up with a sneaking suspicion that I did not have binding for this. I did not see it when cleaning up around here. Sure enough, I sent my extra fabric to Joan!! Now she is sending back enough for the binding. And so it goes.
Sept 30: Hmmm. Some things just aren't meant to happen. Joan's package got rejected so it didn't go out yesterday. Going out today means I won't receive it until Monday. I'll just ship it when it is finished as originally planned.
Oct 01: Quilted at last!! And squared.
Oct 03: Binding is attached.
Oct 04: Hand binding.
Oct 05: Finished.

Quilting & Binding