COVER QUILT Alert! Starry Pursuit in Fons & Porter’s EASY QUILTS (Winter 2011)

Hello Friends!  I hope you have had a good start to your post-Thanksgiving week.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at the Ivory Spring household.  Miss Baby enjoyed being spoiled by her uncle, aunt and cousins!  She can’t stop talking about them.  I am ashamed of myself — I didn’t take any pictures of the food, tablesetting etc!!!  Everything seemed to have happened way too fast with three kids 6 and under in the same house!  Okay, let’s get to something related to the title of this post.  I had an “I have arrived” moment when I spotted my Starry Pursuit quilt on the cover of Fons & Porter‘s Easy Quilts (Winter 2011)!

Those of you who have seen it, whether in print or person, have written with warm responses.  I want to thank you for your kindness.  The most touching comment came from my sister who was able to find the magazine where she lives in Malaysia… ”

I'm so excited!! I bought ur cover quilt mag!!!!!! I'm soooo happy I found it!!!
It always gave me goosebumps when I see ur work! And when I found that mag,
it also make me feel soooo proud!"

Image from http://www.fonsandporter.com

The sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is indescribable!  Kudos go to the editorial staff at Fons and Porter for the excellent photography and presentation.  I want to also take the opportunity to say a BIG thank you to the F&P staff for their patience in waiting for the quilt to show up at their office!  The quilt was late in coming because I didn’t get the sample yardages before the due date.  And on top of that, I was seized by an “artist rules” moment after the quilt top was pieced.  Instead of zipping through the quilting process to get the quilt shipped , my artistic self constrained me to do some serious quilting on the quilt.  The result is as follows:

It is also my first time experimenting with dark solid fabrics to highlight my quilting.  I couldn’t be happier about the result.  Quilting was done using Aurifil‘s Mako 50 Cotton threads over Hobbs Tuscany Silk batt.  All the quilting was free-handed.  That’s why you don’t see any identical feather plumes or pebble clusters.

The fabrics are from Henry Glass‘ The Great I Am line, designed by Leanne Anderson of The Whole Country Caboodle.  It is a Christmas fabric line, and as soon as I saw the fabrics, I knew the design had to be something related to stars! Click here for quilt kits to replicate the quilt, available from Fons and Porter.

The name “Starry Pursuit” is my original – a rather cool name (if I may say so myself) considering how HORRIBLE I am in naming quilts! :)  I came up with the name as a tribute to the Three Wise Men that followed the Star in their quest to find the Messiah.  Matthew 2: 1-2 records, “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east of Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?  for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”

Matthew 2:9-10 continues, “… lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.”

Matthew 2:11 goes on to record, “… and fell down, and worshiped him…”

The story of The Three Wise Men captured my heart as a child when I first learned about Christmas, and has continued to fascinate me as an adult.  These men were wise, yet they chose to still seek Him.  Thanks for letting me share with you my favorite Christmas story via fabric pieces!  It will definitely be one of my Christmas highlights that I will treasure for all my life.  Blessings to you!

p.s.  I am also entering this quilt in SewCalGal’s Christmas Quilt Show.  Click on the image below to see what other Christmas quilts bloggers have made!