Starburst quilt.......Lonestar

In 1981 I was shopping frantically for Christmas gifts and even though I was trying to be thoughtful I was really grabbing things right and left to get the job done.  I had the two kids with me, I was a widower, and it was my job to figure it all out on my own.

I was in a cheap discount store and saw this kit for making the top to a quilt.  It was a packaged deal with all of the pieces precut, coded with directions, all  ready to go to be sewn into a starburst design.  Up to this time my mom had only done quilts with basic blocks and nothing fancy.  So I thought I will buy it and hope she will give it a try.

This very purchase was the turning point for my mom to start creating very decorative, multi-shaped quilts.  She didn't say much about it when she received it as a gift and I thought I really had made a mistake.  At her stage of life at that time and with various family situations that were making her crazy, she quietly sat down and started hand sewing all of these pieces together. Once completed she quilted on it for a whole winter.  She didn't say much but she was secretly glowing that she could pull this off.

From then on she became an avid decorative quilt maker. She then started creating a quilt for every grandchild and every quilt had a chosen color scheme and she bought templates to create fancy quilting patterns.  The quilt tops were far more complicated and she looked for new ideas continually.

My brother who recently died had addiction problems along other health concerns.  He moved in with my parents as a last resort.  At the beginning, the quilt was suppose to go to a grandchild.  The quilt had hung on the wall in the bedroom where my brother was to stay.  That was probably 15 or more years ago.  It was a bad scene for my parents to have him to move in but anyway, I now do remember. She was concerned for it's safety.  I really had forgotten that she folded it up and handed it to me one day that many years ago.

My wife and I had put it into a heavy plastic bag and had stowed it back then apparently and I had instead inserted the memory that she had given it to one of the grandchildren.  While working on the house these past months,  I was thinking about it and wondered if I could get the person to take a picture of it and send it to me as I wanted to see it again.

Needless to say, when I pulled it out of that closet on Thursday I was more that a little surprised.

I know that my mom went ahead and made a very nice quilt to give to the grandchild that she initially had mentioned that should receive this one.  Being it was her first, she really didn't know that she would eventually make 10 different quilts for her grandkids.

I promise to retake the photo of the whole quilt for you quilt lovers. I will post it on the sidebar some of these days.  I am going to have to clear a floor to lay it out to photograph it in a better light than I did with these posted photos today.

It is Sunday and it has been a couple of years from seeing my older brother Ron.  It will be good to see him tomorrow.  He is back for his 50th year class reunion.  Thanks for stopping by.......

P,.S. If the quilt is not called a starburst quilt but has another name, please let me know. I would be more that glad to correct the name of it.