Giant Blue Star - Quilt Finish

So excited to share this finish with you!! This quilt cinched it for me. I'm seriously addicted to dense quilting! I'm seriously NOT taking on any more commissions without this understanding up front, quilting will be dense, it will take more time, and it will cost more. That's just the deal. I quilt because I love it, it is not my business nor do I ever envision that it will become a business. That would just suck the fun right out of it for me. So you have heard it here first, I am officially going to be way more picky about what I agree to make and my prices have gone up. ;) There, I've said it publicly so now I have to stick to it, right? haha Oh, and never again will I agree to make TWO quilts in three weeks. That can be taken to the bank (does anyone say that anymore, my dad used to say it all the time! LOL). OK, I'm done with that little rant, let's see how this baby came together shall we? :)

I contemplated many designs for the star on this quilt. In the end I knew this - I could spend a bajillion hours doing intricate ruler work and it wouldn't be seen, or I could figure out some kind of funky all over design. As you can see, I chose a funky all over design :) Inspiration for this design came from Yvonne's quilt. Her's is a little LOT more consistent. . . mine is a little haphazard. . . I used blue thread, I seriously could not see where I had been. It was a constant guess and as I got started, I decided to go with it - texture is what we are after here right? :)

Uh, yeah, this was my husband's idea. . . Remember the border on Shockwaves? I remember doing that border. . . it took a LONG time. Time is not on my side. . . So I decided that I wouldn't do the inner circles and would mash down the outside with some back and forth lines. . . How long could that take?? . . . you guessed it, a good amount of time. I drew all of the circles onto the quilt using an architectural circle template that had a bunch of different sized circles. Then I got to quilting. . . And I made a decision - NO WAY was all of the background going to be done with these circles. Just the triangles. . . 'just'. . . .

And then this happened.... I was trying to figure out what to do in those corners. And I ran across this video. . . I almost fell down the stairs when I went to show my husband. I was more than a little excited. He looked at it and said "Oh yeah!". . . I ran back upstairs and started marking out the squares and immediately started quilting. . . after the first square (there are 6 squares quilted in the picture above) I thought "What in the hell are you doing???" And then I thought, how can I not??? :)

At this point I send a picture to my #1 Fan. Text comes back "Kind of tight don't you think?" What?? He doesn't like it?? How could you not like it?? So I asked him and he says "No, just thought you weren't going to get carried away with it." . . . LMAO, he should know by now!!

This picture was taken Tuesday morning. . . I was supposed to deliver the quilts on Tuesday morning.... I had half of the background quilted at this point and still no idea what in the heck I was going to do for the borders. . .

Tuesday late afternoon. Decision time for the blue borders. . . I knew this, the quilting was not going to show, I've used this fabric many times on the back of quilts. The quilting doesn't show, texture yes, quilting, not so much. But then I decided to extend that AW Dot to dot design done on the outside of the fans in the squares to the borders. . . LOTS of marking.

What I have not mentioned is that through the entire process of quilting this quilt, I was having thread breakage and my machine was making a horrendous noise that was coming from the bobbin case. I was using the exact same black Isacord thread I had used on the purple star. . . I decided that since we had to run some errands Tuesday morning, I would stop at the shop and buy a new bobbin case. When I was there, I happened to see the repair guy. I asked him if I had the right bobbin case to which he responded "Why do you need that??" . . . I told him what was going on and he said, you don't need a new bobbin case, just take the bobbin case out and put a drop of oil in that center 'thingy' (totally a technical term if it came from the repair guy right??? LOL) and you will be good to go. . . I didn't believe him and bought the bobbin case anyway - I didn't have time to mess around! Anyway, he then asked one of the women who sells the machine about my thread breaking issues. . . People, I love this shop. I do NOT love this woman. Customer service is not her deal. I was told that it doesn't matter what your machine liked with the last quilt, now it doesn't like that thread. You are using the wrong needle (I change my needles constantly, I do use different sized needles depending on the wt of the thread), your machine does not like those needles. . . I could go on but I see this paragraph is getting long. I'll spare you. Let's just say I left the shop seeing red. . . blood red! LOL

I'll shorten this story by a lot by telling you that the drop of oil in the center 'thingy' worked!! We won't talk about the fact that it took me several hours of tearing apart the house to find the sewing machine oil. . . which was in the most obvious place ever. . . NOT ;) OK, back to the quilt!

TADA!!! This picture was taken Wed. morning. . . it had just come out of the wash and I was leaving in minutes to deliver it ;) BUT, it was finished!!!

I woke up at 3 am Wed. morning and finished ironing the binding and sewed it onto the quilt. Threw it in the wash, dried it and lint brushed it. Then we went out for a bike ride. . . we came home, had a very quick photo shoot and I ran out the door for a hair appointment (hey, we all have priorities right? LOL), took the quilts with me as I would be dropping them off right after the appointment. Whew! But wait, I have more pictures ;)

This quilt makes me smile! :)

I used the stripy fabric from the outside star points for the binding. I considered doing a bias cut binding. . . but I have never done it before and I didn't have time to deal with any potential mistakes ;)

The back, a perfect dark blue flannel :) I used gray thread and in person, you really can see the stitches on this one :) Happy dance :D

Those fans!! Seriously my new favorite. . . I am going to be playing with this concept - I think the possibilities are endless!

The border quilting shows on the back! :)

And not so much on the front. If you really look, you can see it.

And one more picture of the whole quilt. Because I just can't get enough!! ;)

I am happy to report that I received a text on Christmas Eve from my client. He sent a picture with all three of the 'kids' (all young adults but when they are our kids they are always kids right?) holding up their quilts with the biggest smiles! :D and this message "Success!!" WOOT! WOOT! Oh, and the text also said "I'll need those pillows" LOL He had asked if I could make pillows like I had for his daughter. Yup, but they are not going to be finished for Christmas! Make some pillow IOUs for the boys. . . in other words, Ho, Ho, Ho, NO! At least not for gifting on Christmas Eve.

This ends my saga of two quilts in three weeks :) In the post of the finish of the purple star, Yvonne commented that she hoped this little venture didn't burn me out too much. Until I read her comment, I had not really thought about it. It may have. I haven't touched my machine since I finished this quilt! That will change today ;)

A reminder, my 2 year blogiversary is coming in four days! I think I will be combining my Best of 2015 post and the thank you followers giveaway post. Seems fitting don't you think? ;) So make sure you come back and enter to win. . . what? Oh, it will be something(s) good I promise!!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for her Monday addition of Finish it Up Friday and with Beth for MCM! I can't wait to sit down with a cup of coffee tomorrow and check out what everyone has finished and is crushing on! AND DWM, I haven't linked up with Patchwork times all month (I think... I didn't look but it's been far too long! :)

Until next time, keep on quilting!