Ohio Stars & Rails!

A Cry for Freedom!
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Finished Jan 5, 2006
Size: approx 69"X69"

"Let every Nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall
pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend,
oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

~John F. Kennedy

Monday, September 17, 2001.

I woke up this morning with the NEED to stitch something patriotic. I can't explain this need, but many of you are also experiencing it. This is what came to my mind......White ohio stars on blue backgrounds, surrounded by red and white rail blocks.

My ohio stars are 6" finished size. I was concerned about making them any bigger, because then the rail blocks would have to be HUMONGOUS strips, and I didn't want them to over power the quilt. The easiness of the rail blocks makes up for the small pieces in the Ohio Stars, and it really does go quick.

This is the extent of what is on my design wall right now. Like the rest of us, I have a family and a busy business, and I can't stop everything to put my heart into this, even tho I want to do nothing else......SO...I will work on it as time allows, and add more pictures as it grows.

Saturday, Sept 22, 2001:

As of today I have pieced 17 ohio star blocks, and have 24 or so more cut out and ready to stitch. I also have a stack of rail blocks ready. I am thinking of setting this quilt 9 X 9, with 1/2 the blocks being stars, and the other 1/2 being rails. That will give me a quilt center of 54" before borders. I have quite a way to go yet, but I am working on it a bit at a time. Considering the fact that President Bush said this could be a long war......I think I can pace myself. *grin*

Tuesday, Oct 30th, 2001:

I finished the top! Yeserday (Monday) I finished the remainder of the blocks while at my Sit N Sew group in Sulphur Springs. I got the blocks all laid out and stitched in rows, but had to wait til another spare moment to sew the rows together. I had one of those nights where you just can't sleep, so I was up between 3 and 5 am putting rows together and adding borders! I originally thought that I would do a pieced border, but when I got the blocks together, the quilt center was so busy and so graphic, that it really needed a 2 1/2" plain white border to float the quilt center, and then I found the perfect navy moda print to frame the quilt with a 6" outer border. I had JUST enough navy! (love it when I use up something with no leftovers! *hehe*) The top measures about 69" square. Now onto the quilting!

If you would like to join me, here are the directions for the Ohio Star blocks.

For each star cut:

White:
TWO 3 1/4" squares. Cut these squares diagonally twice
with an X to give you 8 star points.

ONE 2 1/2" square for the star center.

Navy:

TWO 3 1/4" squares. Cut these squares diagonally twice
with an X to give you 8 star background triangles.

FOUR 2 1/2" squares for block corners.

Piece blocks in this manner:

Make four hour-glass squares:

Place a white triangle with a blue triangle with right sides together..and seam along one SHORT side. This will make one HALF of your hour glass square. Continue chain feeding triangle pairs through your machine until you have 8 identical triangle pairs.

lay these out on your pressing board and press the seam allowances to the DARK. trim points and snip threads between triangles.

Make two piles of 4 triangles each.....and place them with long sides facing eachother. Pair these up with right sides together to stitch them into hour glass squares. Trim threads between squares, and trim excess points.

Lay out all your star pieces to form the block..... Make sure that your white points are forming the star points...and place your 4 blue background squares in the corners, and the white square in the center.

Stitch the block in rows across, as in sewing a 9 patch block.

Rail blocks:

I am digging through my scraps for this quilt. My rail blocks are made with assorted red fabrics.....the white in the quilt is the one "constant" that I have going. It is a bleached muslin.

Cut red fabric into 2 1/2" strips. Cut white center fabric into 2 1/2" strips.

Stitch a red on either side of the white....pressing seams towards the dark.

Sub-cut these long strips into 6 1/2" rail blocks.

Assembly:

Lay out your stars alternating with the rail blocks for the quilt center.
Stitch blocks into rows, and then sew the rows into the quilt center.

To frame the quilt, I added a 2.5" cut inner border of white and framed the whole quilt with a 5" cut outer border of navy blue.

Quilting Detail: