My Night Sky quilt has been a WIP for well over a year -- you can read my post from November 2015 here. I love patterns by Jaybird Quilts, and this one was no exception.
The top ends up with a pointed scalloped edge along the top and bottom (as shown below). I had originally wanted to square up the quilt, or add more black background. But Dena @ No Frickin' Blog Yet convinced me to leave it.
After I finished quilting, I was ill with the thought of having to make bias binding and then hand stitch the binding to the back. So in keeping with only doing stuff that makes me happy, I squared it up.
And then Dena let me down again. 😊 My first thought was black binding, but sewing black binding on black background is hard on the eyes. So I consulted with Dena again, certain that she'd say one of the colours in the quilt, or a scrappy binding. Oh no! She had to say black binding. But I did use black because it was the right thing to do.
Here's a closeup of my attempt at dot-to-dot quilting. I used silver thread. My "longarm" is a Pfaff loaded onto a frame, so I only have a 6-inch quilting depth (5 inches when you get about three-quarters through the quilt -- the quilt takes up some of that space on the roller). It was hard enough trying to do this design without adding the work and stress of having to change thread for every star. As it was, I had to do five passes (advancing only about an inch or so each pass) to quilt each row of stars. I stopped calculating how long it took to quilt, but my best guess is around 7 hours.
It took two attempts to get photos today because it was so windy. The first attempt, the quilt kept blowing around on the ground and blew off the clothesline. I got better photos on the second attempt, but I had to catch photos when the quilt blew back. The wind was so strong, the quilt blew to be horizontal with the ground.
This was my last Q4 goal for Finish Along 2016.
Linking up with:
Beautiful colors, and I love how you have quilted the stars! What a great finish for 2016!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!! A super finish for 2016. Happy New Year Anja!
ReplyDeleteSo pretty and colorful. Such a lovely quilt.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth I prefer squared up quilts , neater and a cleaner less prissy finish somehow. This is a gorgeous quilt , so alive and vibrant . Happy new year Anja x
ReplyDeleteThose brights against the black background are lovely. :) Awesome final finish to ring in the new year with!
ReplyDeleteI really like that you did what made you happy and squared up the quilt. I also agree that the black binding finishes this one off well. Congratulations on another finish and Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteGood job! I'm having a terrible time with photos this winter. It's almost always dark and overcast. When it's sunny it's howling gale windy and cold. I swear I never remember so many overcast days in winter. Clouds and sun used to alternate in small groups like normal weather patterns. Not anymore! /rant Thanks for the mini-therapy venting, lol!
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful! I love the bright colors, and your quilting! THis is a quilt to be proud of!!
ReplyDeleteSusie
Congrats!!! You did it! This is such a pretty quilt. I actually like that you squared it up. I love how it looks like the stars go behind the black binding. You should be very very proud of this one.
ReplyDeleteCongrats!!! The black binding was the way to go and the quilting is perfect. A fabulous finish.
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