If you saw the last post about this quilt, I got the top done and was ready to quilt it up.
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As usual, I loaded it up onto the quilt machine and then broke out my notebook to sketch some designs.
I really struggled with what to do on the quilt. If i could get a fancy Gammill with an 18" or 22" I would be able to quilt the entire block at once. Unfortunately, my mid-arm can only do 4" - 6" at a time so I need a design that you can't really tell I only did a few inches at a time.
After much thought, I decided I was going to just stipple or meander as small as I can in only the gold areas. That should be a fairly easy pattern to quilt, you shouldn't be able to tell from the front where I start or stop and quilting just the gold should make the red stars really pop!
After I took the quilt off of the quilting machine and trimmed the edges, I used the excess backing fabric to make the quilt binding. I like to use a piece of masking tape to tape one end of the binding to an empty spool of thread and then keep winding it up on there. I use double fold binding but I honestly don't worry too much about cutting them on the bias.
So finally, after MANY MANY hours of sewing, I had a beautiful completed quilt. I think this is also the first quilt I've done (not counting little projects like placemats or pillows) that uses more than just squares or rectangles - triangles are always so daunting! I brought this quilt to Dallas for my stepmom Laurie's 50th Birthday and I think she really loved it!! And of course in my 2am rush to finish the quilt I totally forgot to take a finished pic. **sigh** One day I'll get better about taking quality pics of finished quilts, LOL.
For the original Star Surround Quilt Along Series, check here: http://happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com/2013/09/star-surround-qal-parade-and-grand.html
