Karlie's Quilt -- Stars and Hearts

When my niece, Karlie, asked me to make a quilt for her I was delighted to do so.  When she said she wanted it to be black and grey with white stars and red hearts I thought that might be a challenge.  I've made quilts with stars,  and I've made quilts with hearts, but I've never made one with both.  I wondered if I could come up with a design where the stars and hearts played well together.  I got out my handy-dandy graph paper and started with stars.  (Don't anyone tell me I need to learn to design on the computer -- I've tried -- I can't.  I like graph paper.)

Every single black and white print came from my stash.  I have a pretty cool supply of B&W prints!

My original plan was to just put a black border on it, but I didn't like the way the stars would be cut off.  

You know what that means, right?  Out came the graph paper!

This is how I made the components I needed to get the stars to extend into the border.

Does that make sense?  Anyway.  This border was going to look lots better.

I had to at least throw some hearts into the backing.  

A little bit of everything actually ended up there.

That was still not enough hearts to suit me.  Now it was up to my friend, Shirley (Custom Quilting by Shirley Jackson) to work in a few more.  I asked her to do a simple meander and every once in a while, throw in a heart.  It's all good, she knew exactly what I meant.  She used a variegated black and red thread which looked perfect.

The hearts needed to stand out just a little more, so I embroidered around just those in the border.

Yes!  That made me happy.  In fact, I love it.

Finished! 

The best part was yet to come.  Seeing Karlie's face when I gave it to her.

There you have it.  The perfect gift for a beautiful young woman.  I know she loves it.  These pictures don't lie.