Country Thread’s Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge: #1 Feedsack Star

My Feedsack Star quilt is my December finish and I am so thankful that it was a quick and easy finish being only 31” square. It only took around seven years to finally finish since parts of this quilt were started in 2014, which are the tiny feedsack circles in the corner nine-patches. 

I thought this would be a good post to finally explain how these 2” feedsack circles came to be and waiting for a project that I could finally include them in. Back in 2014 I finally finished my Feedsack Clamshell Quilt which you will see later in another Post in the future since some of the leftover blocks is another quilt which is part of the UFO Challenge.

The feedsack circles are made of four quarter circles which were cut from the bottom of the clamshell freezer paper pieces and  I could not bear to throw them away and figured I could find a way to make something with them. I decided to sew four of them together, then sew them on light interfacing which a circle drawn a little smaller than the sewn feedsack circle and then the interfacing was trimmed 1/4” around the circle. While deciding on what to make with these circles, I passed a few of them, liking them as feedsack coins,  to a few friends, some of them to Susan of Patchwork and Play who also immediately made something with them.

The feedsack circles sat around for several years before I appliquéd them to 4” black hatched print squares which was a project I took on a road trip. Then it laid around for several more years until August, 2020 when I had an idea to make a wall hanging since I finally decided that these circles were meant for small projects.

Almost five years ago I wrote a post about Feedsack Fabrics and Friends which I mentioned my love of feedsack fabrics and how I accumulated a stash through the kindness of friends. After this post, I became blog buddies with Wendy Caton Reed of The Constant Quilter whom we both share a love of feedsack fabrics and a past fondness for Tom Selleck. Wendy sent me a pack of 3.5” feedsack squares, many of which I’ve never seen before. I thought I would make nine patches with a combination of the feedsack circles and Wendy’s squares and just needed to trim the appliquéd circles a half-inch  in order for them to be the same size as the squares.

The center nine-patch were made with all squares. Once the nine-patches were sewn, I then needed to sew four QSTs with a red pin dot fabric, a black and red feedsack reproduction print and the black hatch print used for the appliquéd circles. All of the squares measure 9” finished and once the inner and outer borders were added made a 31” square wall hanging.

I did machine quilting in the ditch around the star and nine patches and then did diagonal big stitch hand quilting with black embroidery thread across the star and nine patches. Tiger tape helped to keep my stitches nice and even.

The backing is an Aunt Grace print and the binding was hand sewn which is what I like to do for wallhangings.

I wasn’t sure if I had a spot to hang this sweet quilt but then realized that it would fit on one of the wide black doors in the farmhouse kitchen at the Grandparent House. Doesn’t it look sweet with Susannah, my metal goat? I thought Mary Etherington, host of the Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge would get a kick out of this photo since the goat is named after her late, great goat Susannah. I still have some feedsack circles and squares left so another small wall hanging may be in the plans. But first I need to check with Wendy Caton Reed to see if I ever sent her any feedsack circles, I can’t remember.

I thought my Feedsack Star Quilt was going to be my last quilt for 2021 but I was feeling a little quilt guilty about not making the darling granddaughter a quilt for Christmas. I decided after my last visit at the Grandparent House and spending days and hours watching Brown Bear videos with her that she needed a sofa snuggler which is what a Patchwork Blankie is. 

I ordered the fabric from Fat Quarter Shop (not an affiliate link) and had the teal plush fabric in my stash. I wasn’t sure of how these fabrics were going to be laid out but fortunately Nancy, Grace and Peace Quilting just posted a Vintage Santa Quilt which uses a large focal print and inspired me to come up with this pattern.

Since there is no batting in this quilt, I only did light machine quilting with silver polyester thread, straight and wavey. The Brown Bear Blankie measures 50” x 70” which is a nice size for two to snuggle under. This was a fast make, just under two days.

We’ll soon be heading to the Grandparent House for Christmas and will be spending the final days of 2021 at home which might give me enough time for one last quilt. We’ll see. 

Wishing everyone a Joyous and Merry Christmas, please stay healthy and safe.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT