Out of Control

Lone Star quilt by Laurie Simpson

It's always a wonderful thing to see a reproduction quilt like this one by Laurie Simpson of Minick and Simpson.
She saw a glimpse of an antique quilt in the magazine QuiltMania.

"It was an amazing example of a Lone Star quilt. I couldn't take my eyes off it. I got out my graph paper and pencil (and lots of erasers) and tried to figure it out. There was a slight mathematical quirk (i.e. mistake) that made my quilt 120" square - but hey, you can't get everything right can you. This is what I came up with."

See her post by clicking here:
http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/2010/01/quiltmania.html

I decided to make a Lone Star for my second quilt in 1967. How hard could it be? I drafted a diamond. I hand-pieced 8 giant arms. I put it together. There was room for only six arms.

I had two left over arms. It was a six-pointed star.

How was I to know there is more than one shape of diamond? "Hey you can't get everything right in the world can you?"

I would show you this quilt but my sister mercifully wore it out.

Things could have been worse, however. Here's a nice collection of seven-pointed stars.

The Cherokee Nation uses a seven-pointed star for their symbol. And quilters probably do make seven-pointed star quilts deliberately, but with my experience I have to guess that the seven-pointed stars shown here were a surprise to everyone involved.

If you haven't seen enough of what can go wrong, click on these images from the Quilt Index.
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=47-7B-7D1
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1E-3D-A10
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-4A8

Here's a block from one of Deb Rowden's Thrift Shop Quilts.

Notice there are seven arms meeting in the center.

Oh dear, a left over arm! What to do?

Put it in the top center triangle. It almost fits.