Reunion Auction Quilt

I'm in southern Alberta for the second time this summer.  It's "Magrath Days" and reunion time for the family of my grandparents, William Toomer Passey and Ruth Myrtle Norton.  I've become reacquainted with many of my cousins and have been introduced to some of their children and their grandchildren.  I have a lot of relatives.  Part of the reunion included an auction which helps to fund the next family reunion.  I decided to donate this quilt.

It's one of the three scrappy flannel quilts I made this spring.  It was completely finished and just waiting for a home.  I love it and will make this pattern again to keep for myself (or maybe to give away).  It's called "Our Best to You #213" by Country Threads.  It combines a star block with the courthouse step block.

Since I used scraps for the front, I cut out and sewed the star blocks first because they used larger pieces of fabric.  The placement of light and dark fabrics is crucial to the success of this quilt. The stars around the outside of the quilt and the center row have dark backgrounds but not necessarily dark stars, although most are dark.  The other 6 star block have light backgrounds and medium or dark stars.  I decided where I wanted all the star blocks located before I started on the courthouse steps and layed them all out on my floor.  It didn't look all that exciting, but I wish I had taken a picture of the quilt in progress. 

I've never made the courthouse step block before but it is a version of the log cabin block (which I have made multiple times).  The fabric is cut into 1 1/2" strips which makes the red center just 1" square finished.  Strips are added around this central square.  Lights are added first to two opposite sides and then a pair of dark strips is sewn to the remaining two sides.  You keep adding in this manner until you've added 4 lights and 4 darks to each side.  The quilt comes to life when you place these blocks between the star blocks and magically the larger diamond shapes appear.

I delivered this quilt to June at Quiltmasters in May along with 2 or 3 others.  After much discussion, we decided an overall puzzle pattern would be the best.  The piecing stands on its own and just needed something to hold the quilt together.

Deciding to donate it to the reunion auction was not too hard, but I had to tell myself that I was okay with it selling for any amount.  In reality, I give quilts away to my relatives all the time and this was no different.  Someone in my extended family would get it and I was just fine with that.  This is my cousin, Merrill Thomson who outbid his wife, Lise for it.  Can I boast by saying it was the highest priced item at the auction?  Do you see the family resemblance?

The reunion is over and Kent is looking forward to golfing every day with my brother.  I brought my sewing machine along and a project that has a rush deadline.  It's beautiful and sunny and hardly any wind so should be a fabulous week.