IditaQuilt Finish

The last musher to finish the Iditarod gets the Red Lantern Award...it symbolizes determination to finish a tough race even under the best of conditions. Here's my Red Lantern finish on my IditaQuilt.

IditaQuilt - 98x110

Here's a recap of my journey.

It all started with this beautiful batik fabric from Hoffman that came out in Alaska stores in June of 2010.

These fabrics came home with me where I stored them in my mind and on my shelves...with too many other lovely pieces of fabric.

Then in October at my monthly quilt gathering we took on the quilt, Bali Seas Stars, the cover quilt of Kim Brackett's book, "Scrap-Basket Surprises."

After I had made all my stars I played with them on my design wall and realized there were at least two ways to align the stars to create different layouts. 

With EQ7 I added a sashing block that attached the stars to one another and created a bigger star. Then I took the scraps from trimming all the half square triangles (HST) and made mini pinwheel stars.

Spinning Bali Sea Star - 98x110

But I had also come up with another design using the Bali Sea Star Block which I  drew up on EQ7

This meant treating the stars as their quarter parts, 6" blocks and adding a 6" square of companion fabric. 

Then I had the bright idea to work on the quilt during the Iditarod Race and finish it by the time the Red Lantern racer came under the Burl Arch in Nome. Since it was my first race I found out quickly I wasn't prepared. I lacked batting and one of the three colors of thread I wanted to use. All had to be ordered on the internet. I was in trouble. But everything finally came together and now my quilt is completed..two weeks after the Iditarod's official finish. Here is some eye candy of quilting designs. Please note I doubled my batting...it really makes the quilting pop and I think it makes the quilt the perfect weight for actual use.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

This was quilted by me on my Nolting 18" Fun Quilter. I make mostly bed-sized quilts and approach quilting design as combining looks with it's intended use. I expect my quilts will  be machine washed and machine dried if possible...king size is tough to fit in a home dryer. I live with dogs and a family that are not afraid to use my quilts so they need to be sturdy.