Throwback Thursday Quilt Edition--Ohio Star Twofer

Every once in awhile I claim that I don't repeat patterns much, and I guess I don't. It just depends on your definition of "much." Today, I was going through old photos for this post, and guess what I found? Yup. Two quilts, same pattern, made 12 years apart. Even the same quilting. I guess I really liked that pattern. The weird thing is that although I found some very sketchy notes from the second quilt, they don't really help with figuring out the exact size of the blocks. I also found patterns that I drew for the quilting designs. I'm not sure where the original plans are. Did I base the second quilt on a photo of the first? Or on the original quilting drawings? We'll never know.

The first quilt was for my husband's step-grandma Jenny. She lived in a senior residence and had just moved to a new room. We visited her there (about a four hour drive from our home), and she showed us the new bedspread she had bought to celebrate her move. I took careful notes (in my head) of where she bought it, then went home, took a bunch of fabric swatches to a department store from the same chain, and matched them up to the same bedspread there. A sales clerk wanted to assist me with a sale, but I said I was fine and continued to hold up my swatches to the bedspread, taking notes of what went with it. She must have thought I was nuts. But it worked, and I was able to make the quilt in just the right colors. I finished it in time for Jenny's 77th birthday in July 1990. The quilt disappeared for awhile near the time she passed away in 2009, but then mysteriously showed up again sometime later. It must have been in a storage room somewhere. By then, my husband's parents were living in the same residence. Since I had labelled the quilt on the back and included my last name, whoever found it made the connection and gave it to my mother-in-law. It now hangs in her bedroom. I guess there is a lesson in there to label quilts. As it is, I usually don't label mine anymore except for quilting my initials and the date somewhere. Maybe I should label them better--at least if they are gifts to commemorate an occasion. (That label also helped me with dating the quilt.)

So here's Jenny's quilt:

Ah, but this is a twofer, so if you're still with me, here's that other quilt. I made this one in the summer of 2002. My dad and I traveled to California that year to sell my aunt's house after she passed away. At that time, I met a couple who had been friends of my aunt and had helped her out with various things. They also had me and my dad for dinner while we were working to close down the house. So after returning home from that trip, I decided to give them a quilt as a thank you. Their family room was decorated in country blues and pinks, so I made this one for them:

Both quilts are Ohio Stars set on-point. They are machine pieced and hand quilted. I first thought they might be the same size, but now that I look at the pictures more closely, I'm not so sure. There are more scallops in the border of the first quilt and the feather circles are slightly different. I'm not sure if that means it's bigger or if I made the design in a different scale. From my patterns of the quilting, I think the second quilt might be about 42 by 52 inches. Your guess is as good as mine. I'll have to measure the first quilt next time I visit my mother-in-law. 

I guess if I ever decide to make this pattern again (not really likely, as my style preference has changed), I'd have to reconstruct from the bit of info I have and the photos and then keep decent notes (not really likely, either).

I'm not sure my usual linky party link site is up this week (spring break and all), so I'll just let this one hang out there...Have a good weekend, everyone. Update: Ah, there she is. I'm linking up to My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday.