I gave my machine a fair bit of TLC: cleaning, oiling, a new needle, and it is much happier. So Stargazing is now quilted!
There is one gap left in the negative space in the centre, as I decide what to do for the quilting there. I think as it is 12″ across, it will need quilting: or can I get away without it?
All the littlest stars are hand quilted, with a lovely hand-dyed perle cotton I had that matches perfectly to the overall palette of the stars:
and the back shows off the contrasting thread (which is stitch-in-the-ditch around the larger stars):
I think that’s about the correct level of wrinkly I could expect.
Sewed the binding on this weekend. Now to hand stitch it all down…
And in honour of Fresh Sewing Day, a little mosaic from March. Slow but steady, this month…
1. Blanket stitch, 2. Finished name mini, 3. …sneakily, they grow, 4. once quilted, 5. sunset and perle cotton, 6. Back
Fabraholic
/ April 2, 2012Like your stargazing, especially the handquilting. One day I will start on one myself…
Jenelle
/ April 2, 2012The hand quilting is lovely and really makes those beautiful, little stars quite special.
I think that you might want to do some quilting inside that 12″ space just so that your top fabric won’t “float” away from your batting. Maybe you could take just a select few of those straight lines across the middle and have them converge in an interesting way? You could also quilt another star in the center as sort of a ghost image of the more colorful ones.
Taisia @ Piecing Light
/ April 3, 2012Thank you! I tried quilting ‘ghost’ stars (three of different sizes to echo the pieced stars) in the open area and it worked perfectly. Great idea. Much appreciated