Liberated Finish

I hope you all out in blog land aren't too tired of seeing this project.  I took the last stitches on it this weekend and aside from a sleeve and label, this is finished. Here is my Liberated Amish piece that was a blogger challenge set up by Tonya over at Lazy Gal Quilting. We looked at Amish quilts and Stars and Bars was my inspiration.  As for the letters, this was my first attempt.  This was a bit of a therapy quilt for me, new beginnings, trying new things.  I really didn't, and still don't, like the word Survivor that is tagged to anyone that has dealt with cancer.  I like the word THRIVE.  Doesn't it sound much more positive?

 The top was finished in June of 2010, thank goodness that quilting didn't have that deadline!

 The liberated stars are a la Gwen Marston.  Since there was Amish in this challenge, I knew I had to quilt feathers.  This was my first attempt at hand quilting feathers, they really are easy.  I did straight lines through the stars.

and I used the star piecing for my border lines.  With the piecing for the letters, there were some thick areas to quilt through, so the straight lines worked very well.  I love how this piece turned out.

Hope you get some stitching time this weekend.
Sharon