Dad's Plaid Quilt

My big quilting accomplishment this year was a quilt for my Dad. He is the only one in my family that didn't have something I quilted especially for him and so it was his turn this Christmas. I had to make the entire quilt including the backing out of plaid fabrics because I have never seen my Dad in a shirt that was not made of plaid, except for church and funerals! (You can see the fabric purchase here and the mistake blocks here.) This is a photo of the correct way to sew a block! Each block is 12" so the quilt was 60" x 72" before the borders.
The pattern is from a class I took many years ago at Quilt University with Cindy Thury Smith. It is called "Tesselating Stars" and is one of my all time favorite quilts to make. I have made it several times in mini 3" block size, and have made a lap size for my nephew Alden (see other tesselating star quilts here).
I had to be careful about what I wrote on my blog about sewing this quilt because Dad told me in early December that he was reading my blog! I think he was very surprised with his quilt and I love surprising people on Christmas! On the right is a photo I took before the border decisions. Because I had lots of leftover 4.5" and 6.5" pieces from the block construction I decided to make a piano key border, which you can see a little of here. I put the 4.5" pieces on the sides and the 6.5" pieces on the top and bottom to make it a little longer.
I made a flannel backing so it would be cosy and warm to snuggle under and I quilted it very simply (in the ditch) on all vertical and horizontal seam allowances with my walking foot. Don't you love it when you are making such a large quilt and it finishes square on the corners and lays flat!?!
And here is my Dad with his new quilt (see that he is wearing a plaid shirt?!) Dad I hope you have many refreshing hours of sleeping under your quilt, with lots of happy dreams of how much you are loved by all your family!