Thome's Green Ohio Star Quilt Top

I finished the top for my daughter's quilt! I am pretty pleased with it. I did a lot better matching the points of the stars than my first time around. One thing I did differently is I made the pieces for the quarter square triangles bigger than recommended so that when it was time to trim them down, I had more room to play with. It was very helpful!!! When I had just 0.25 inches of clearance, I inevitably ended up with some squares that just couldn't be the perfectly centered into the 4-inch final size that I needed. With 0.5 inches of extra, it worked out much better. Now, I'm not saying that by the time I got to trimming the squares to their final 12-inch size that I didn't have some aggravating shortages here and there, 'cause I did. But all in all, even those were small enough that I could work with them and just have slightly less fabric on one side of the 0.25-inch seam. 

The second thing I did differently that helped with the matching is that I was a lot more careful about the matching! I saw a nice YouTube video by Quilt Addicts Anonymous with helpful tips and one was a way to use pins to help match points. 

When I ran the idea of a quilt past Thome, she said she'd also like an Ohio star quilt, and the color she'd like it to be was green. She's a nature lover, so I decided to make it out of a mix of nature fabrics. Originally, I thought I could mix it up a lot, with the light and dark squares being all different prints, like this one below. Isn't it lovely? (I copied it from Pinterest...sorry, not sure whose it is...)

But, in the end, I felt I wasn't experienced enough (and the variety of fabrics I was seeing wasn't sufficient) that I decided to anchor the prints with a single solid for the stars and sashing. I had a dark batik in play for a bit during the planning stages, but in the end I didn't like the extra busy-ness it added (or the stiff feel of it for that matter). When I ran a couple design ideas by Thome, she preferred this dark overall look, so I went with the solid green.

I used a total of 7 fabrics. I named them all so I could keep them straight during the playing-around-with-placement stage and the sewing phase. They were all the ones that worked together of those I had collected over several months. Ideally, I might have liked more, or different ones, but this is what I could find that matched the theme and color ideas I was going for.   ​

The Batik Square (not the same batik fabric I had been considering as the dark anchor color)...

The Bee Square...

The Hydrangea Square... 

The Tiny Flowers Square...

The Blue Square (because it has a blue tint)...

The Leaves Square...

The Frogs Square...

Now I just need the quilt backing, and I can get it to the quilter's and into her long queue!!! But I am a little stuck. I will have to find a suitable fabric. I had bought reams of the bee fabric, originally intending that it would be the backing. 

There are now two problems, though, well, maybe three. 

1. I don't have enough of this fabric because I decided to use it as one of the 7 fabrics for the squares on the front. I was just in Joann's and this fabric is g.o.n.e. I can start doing the hunt-for-discontinued-fabric-at-all-my-local-Joann-stores quest again, which I really don't care to do, or I can find something else. One downside is that I am just one f-ing yard short so I'll have to find another use for 3.5 yards of bee fabric.
2. I want to use a different fabric on the back from any I used on the front...and I keep thinking there might be somegthing super sweet out there that would really elevate the whole piece.
3. I wonder if having bees next to your body is off-putting. The image should be soothing and comforting...but bees sting, so I'm second-guessing this choice.

I found the fabric I will use for the backing! I found it online at Hawthorne Supply Co. The only bummer is that it will take a week or two to get here. :-(  So I won't be able to get the quilt sandwich to the quilter's for a while.

Update: I finished the back! I made a seam down the middle and matched the print perfectly using the same technique as with my sister's quilt. Unfortunately, the repeat was over 4 inches horizontally, and I didn't have enough width to give the longarmer the 4 extra inches she needs on each side. I was short about 3.5 inches. I had enough extra from what I trimmed for the center matching to add 2 inches to either side of the back. That print didn't match at all of course, so I'm hoping whatever of that bit is needed when the quilting is done isn't much and ideally will be buried in the binding.

I got it all done and took it to the quilter's today!!! She can't get to it before OCTOBER. I'm glad she's doing great business. She's very good and she's only 15 minutes away from me.