It's a Party! A Quilt Story Block Party!

I've joined Quilt Story's Block Party!

This is my block, entered in the "Traditional" category.

Of course, this block has a story behind it - a Quilt Story, if you will.

Years ago, I made the OnlyChild a Charm Stars Quilt using a pattern from the Oxmoor House book Quick and Easy Scrap Quilts. This is the pattern that made me fall in l♥ve with quilting.

I saved fabric for years to make this quilt. I scoured yard sales, I pillaged my mum's stash, I subscribed to a charm square club, I bought random pieces of fabric at shops. I needed over 200 different fabrics. Not exactly the right choice for a "beginning" quilter without a stash of her own.

But I made it.

After making all those half-square triangles for the stars, you can bet I had lots of fabric left over. In fact, I had enough to make an exact replica of this quilt ;)  But that's not what I did with the leftovers. I made two other quilts.

This one, my Zig Zag quilt, was a baby gift for a colleague expecting her first son. The other one was just too ugly to finish. It's stuffed in a drawer somewhere.

And the block I showed above? I made two of them out of leftover HSTs that I cut in half again. I made mini-star blocks. One was used for the label on the back of the OnlyChild's Charm Stars quilt.

And the other I framed. It hangs in my sewing room - a constant reminder of that first quilt. And why I fell in love with quilting.