Purple Giant Star - Quilt Finish

Back again with the finish of the Giant Purple Star. Original name huh? ;) One thing I forgot to mention in the last post, this is another quilt made completely from my stash!! Well, except the back, flannel was requested and I don't have a stash of flannel backing ;) Let's just get to the pictures! Then we'll talk about how crazy I am. . . I finished this one on 12/16. Five days to quilt. . . six days remaining to quilt the blue star . . . no problem right?? ;) You can read all about the madness of why I was trying to get two quilts made, start to finish, in three weeks, here.

First, let's talk about my crazy brain and my design choices. . . shown in pictures, of course!!

I decided to echo the star lines several times (ruler work) and then fill with something that didn't have to be marked. . . I did mark for the circles - just a dot at the 1 inch mark along the inside of the border. I needed something to keep the circles relatively consistent and to make sure that I was getting a circle at the apex of the point. For the second fill I used crazy 8s. And filled the centers with spirals. This isn't the best picture, there are better ones to come ;)

As you can see in this picture, I quilted the negative space first. Typically I work from the inside out, but because I had ditched every seam, it didn't seem to make much difference where I started and inspiration for the negative space hit first ;) Inside the stars I decided to do that same curved back and forth I did on this quilt. The movement it creates is pretty cool and it is quick. . . I needed quick, tick tock, Christmas Eve is fast approaching!!

I did the same crazy 8 pattern in the border, I think you can see it better in this picture. Square, make binding and label and sew said binding and label on. . . getting close!!

TADA!!! :) Finished. Truth is, I did not take these pictures until after quilting was well under way on the Giant Blue Star. I didn't have time to get it washed and take pictures!

I used the flannel backing for the binding on this one. . . I had nothing but scraps of the purples in the front of the quilt left. The only other choice was the black marble. I kind of like how the flannel looks :)

Check out those center points! Go to this post to see how I managed that :)

The movement that curved back and forth design gives is just awesome. And it is forgiving. . . turns out that making freehand curved lines in blocks this big is a bit of a challenge and being consistent was not even a consideration LOL... as you can see, I didn't achieve consistency but it doesn't seem to matter much :)

I wish I could tell you exactly how big this quilt is after quilting and wash. . . I can tell you it is approximately 67" x 76". I used Quilter's Dream Wool for batting (started my new roll with this quilt!) and Isocord black thread for quilting the negative space and Superior Masterpiece (50 wt) black thread for the quilting inside the star. I used Aurifil 12 wt black to sew down the binding. Love, love, love how the 12 wt thread looks on the binding!! :) I used 40 wt Aurifil 5004 in the bobbin.

Oh yeah! Here's the back ;)

I used a flannel wide back for the quilt. Dark Purple. LOVE how the quilting shows up!

And a close up with a little bit of sun shining through :)

As I quilted this one, something became very clear to me. . . a.) I am a glutton for punishment. . . b.) dense quilting is my thing. . . I can't help myself. From the start of making the two giant star flimsies, I was saying all over design. They are both getting the edge to edge treatment. I don't have time to custom quilt . . . but as you can see, my inner crazy quilter won in the end :)

So what does this mean for the second Giant Star? . . . Come back tomorrow, the post is written and will go live in the morning. I think it might be my best quilting to date. . . so yes, crazy quilter won in a major way on that one too!!

My 2 year blogiversary is coming up on New Year's Eve!! I can't believe it has been two years!! When I wrote that first post, I had no idea what a supportive and fun community I was stepping into! I had no idea that I would make friends. People I consider friends, not 'internet friends' but people I have regular contact with and share the things that don't make it to my blog. It has been a wonderful experience overall and it still amazes me that I have more than a handful of regular readers. Thank you to all of you who have hung through the last month or so. It's been crazy. Posting has be scarce and my commenting on other blogs has been bleak. I feel the worse about that. Please know that I have been keeping up with your blogs, but not commenting. Now that things are back to what constitutes 'normal' at my house, that will change :D Back to the blogiversary, please come back on 12/31/2015. I have a giveaway planned as a thank you to all of my followers!

Linking up with DWM, MCM and Finish It Up Monday (Amanda Jean's linky party is Monday for the holiday schedule)

Until next time, let's go quilt!! :D