Star Bright – another project completed

Posted by: BCQuilter on: 15 February 2008

• In: quilting
• 3 Comments

December 30, 2006 was an interesting day. I took the plunge and signed up for a Mystery Quilt Day our local quilter’s guild was holding. I had only made 2 quilts, one was in a class, so very much a beginner. Little did I know what I was in for.

The instructions we were given, was the amount of fabric we were going to need, and to cut the fabric in different sizes of rectangles and squares. What were we making?

We showed up to the guild hall, and set-up for the day. It wasn’t too long when we realized, that we probably wouldn’t be finishing this quilt top in the one day. We worked at what we could that day. What fun! After each step, we received another envelope with the next step. At the end of the day, the hostess gave us the remaining envelopes. We had to finish this quilt off on our own time. I finished mine I think April or May 2007. The mystery quilt instructions are from Gumnut Gear is from Australia and “caters for all aspects of sewing from dressmaking to patchwork, quilting, overlocking and curtain making, for the beginner through to the advanced sewer. ”

This is my quilt top.

When I had taken it out of storage, to finish it, I showed it to a friend. She asked what I had planned for it. I hadn’t really thought more than just finishing it, and using it as a cuddle blanket on the couch. She asked if I would be interested in selling it. After my initial surprise, I agreed to sell it to her.

I purchased a backing fabric, a nice blue flannel, and used a cotton batting. Nice and comfy! I quilted. I free-motioned quilted around each star, to create a square on point (diamond). It was looking pretty good. I then meandered all over the background, adding a free form 5 point star once in awhile.

The 12 corner stars, I did a different quilting, using a serpentine to the point and back to the centre, meeting in the centre with a circle.

The binding was a challenge… not actually doing the binding, but deciding on what I was going to use. My original idea was to use the scraps from the stars. Not knowing how to proceed, and realizing the time it was going to take to cut and then piece lots of small strips, was not going to work. I went shopping for fabric, with a dark green or dark blue fabric in mind. I didn’t see anything I liked. When I was about to give up, a bright cheery stripe caught the corner of my eye. WOW! The colours were bright, and would match the stars, and coordinate with the background colour very well. I decided to do a bias-cut binding, to get the twisted/twirled effect, like a candy-cane or barbershop pole. Another new technique learned… how to cut fabric on the bias for binding. I was going to hand-stitch the back of the binding down, in the traditional manner.. but the combination of having to stitch 268″, as well that the quilt was going to a 5 year old, I decided to machine stitch, using a decorative stitch, and a variegated thread.

And the quilt is done! I am very pleased with it. It is the largest quilt I have made… finished about 67″ x 67″. It’s amazing how attached you can get to something, especially when you have made it yourself.

I delivered the quilt yesterday, and my friend who purchased it, was quite pleased with it. She is giving it to her nephew tonight for his birthday.

The end of the Mystery Quilt’s adventure with me. I named it Star Bright.

Tags: bright colours, mystery quilt, stars