Kaleidoscope Stars {Finished!}

Five weeks ago I started a quilty journey that very quickly turned into a bit of an obsession. I haven't counted properly, but I think I've probably spent close to 100 hours working on this quilt. It was worth every single second though - I am SO happy with how it has finished up!

No fancy photo shoot with this quilt I'm afraid, I was too impatient to share it ;o) Hopefully the ridiculous number of photos in this post will give you a pretty good idea of what it looks like anyway!

Almost all the star fabrics in this quilt are from various collections by the hugely talented Jenean Morrison. Her fabric designs are just perfect for fussy cutting, and it was lots of fun creating kaleidoscope effects with them. This quilt is vaguely made using Jaybird Quilts Night Sky pattern - although there are only a few Night Sky blocks sprinkled around the quilt. The rest were made using Julie's Sidekick ruler (which is PERFECT for fussy cutting), but simplified so they don't include the outer star points in the Night Sky blocks. I also mucked around with different sized stars - some are bigger and some smaller than Julie's pattern.

Having the stars different sizes was the perfect way to incorporate lots of quilting into the quilt, too. I added 2 1/2" borders to the small and medium sized stars to bring them up to the same size as the biggest ones. The way I pieced it made it very easy to plan my quilting too - and it meant I did very little marking too as I could just use the borders to guide my quilting. I went all out with the quilting on this quilt, and I am delighted with the results. I feel like I'm a lot more relaxed when I'm quilting lately - I don't need to focus on what I'm doing as much anymore, so it is a very meditative thing to do. The only problem is how sore my shoulders get after quilting a quilt this densely ;o)

I quilted all the negative space first (using 40wt Aurifil in 2021) and then went back and quilted the stars using matching thread. I toyed with the idea of leaving some of the 'borders' around the stars unquilted, but ultimately decided to quilt it all - and I'm really happy with that decision. I think it would have looked a bit weird to have sections unquilted amongst all the dense quilting, and I'm not sure it would have worked all that well once it was washed (something I still need to do, along with blocking it). It does make the background a little busy, but because the thread matches the solid (Cotton Couture in soft white) so well, I don't think it distracts from the stars too much. Plus the quilting is a really important design element on this quilt.

The back is an amazing print from Parisville by Tula Pink - I had just enough for the back, but not enough to match the print unfortunately. I suspect this one will hang on a wall though, so I'm not too phased (and it's the kind of print that isn't horribly noticeable when it isn't matched). I love, love, love how much the quilting shows up on the back - I used a bobbin thread matched to the top thread, and even though there are lots of different colours in there, they all blend into the print.

I used 100% wool batting in this quilt - and I am completely in love with using it. I've gradually been working my way up in terms of the loft of batting I use as I've become more confident with my quilting, and I love how much texture wool gives to quilting. I don't think I'll go back to lower loft batting now I've tried this stuff.

The stars themselves are quite sparsely quilted - I used the fabric design as a guide for the quilting in most of them, and simply stitched around some of the designs to add a bit of dimension to the stars, but still letting them pop a bit.

 Quilt Stats:

Size - 72" x 75"

Fabric - Lots of Jenean Morrison prints, along with a few Joel Dewberry and Amy Butler prints. Background is Cotton Couture in Soft White. 

Quilting - on my domestic Bernina, using a variety of Aurifil threads (40wt in the background, 50wt in the stars). 

Backing - Damask Dot from Parisville by Tula Pink

Binding - Cotton Couture in Soft White. 

Huge thanks to all of my IG peeps for your amazing encouragement during the making of this quilt (and for putting up with almost daily updates!!) As cliched as it sounds, I have loved every single second of making this - but at the same time I am relieved it is done. I have an FMQ tutorial I need to put together, and get back to working on my other projects!!

I'm linking up with Gemma's iQuilt linky party and Crazy Mom Quilts :o)

xx Jess 

My current obsession

Do you ever start a project and become completely and utterly obsessed with it? I have to admit I don't often do this - I normally have several projects on the go at once, and flit between them to keep things interesting. I have been a lot better with this over the last year or two (mostly because I've started working to deadlines for magazine quilts so I actually finish things in a reasonable time frame), but I still have a big tendency to start things and then abandon them when something more interesting comes along. Sometimes they're only abandoned briefly, other times they loiter in boxes untouched for months (or years) at a time. But sometimes a project will come along that needs to be made. Yesterday. 

My current project fits into the completely-obsessed-can't-think-about-anything-else category. I've been working on it every single night for the last (almost) three weeks and I think it's my favorite quilt ever. Ever. And if you follow me on Instagram you're probably well aware of this (considering you've been getting almost daily updates ;o) )

Anyhoo, ever since I finished making my Night Sky mini quilt last month, I'd been wanting to start a big version. I toyed with lots of different fabric options - and almost started it using a bundle of Suzuko Koseki stripes - until I had a sudden idea to make the stars into kaleidoscopes. And that's where this quilt began. 

I'm a huge fan of Jenean Morrison's work - I fell hard for her Silent Cinema collection when it came out and have bought a few pieces of most of her collections since then. For some reason I'm particularly drawn to her symmetrical prints, and have acquired quite a collection for no reason other than I love them. They're the type of prints that lend themselves to fussy cutting, but I never thought I had the patience (or desire) to fussy cut anything, so there they sat (and sat) looking pretty. I have always adored Katy's fabulous Spring Carnival cushion, but I cannot stand doing EPP (don't shoot me!) so I was a bit stumped with what to do with them. But then I bought a Sidekick ruler from the shop where I work/teach and the idea for this quilt was born.

 I spent a long night (about 6 hours) cutting the fabric for the stars (once I started I seriously couldn't stop. That first photo is that first night of cutting), and then a couple of weeks putting them together. I've been super pedantic with my seams and points in this quilt - it's the first time I've deliberately made something with the intention of entering it into a show - and I'm pretty happy with how it's come together. It isn't quite perfect - there are a few slightly dodgy points - but it's as close to perfect as I've ever come. And yes, I'm quite proud of it.

Almost all the fabrics I've used are from various collections by Jenean Morrison (lots of Silent Cinema, but quite a few of her more recent collections as well), with a couple of Amy Butler and Joel Dewberry prints thrown in as well. I didn't choose any of the fabrics based on colour, instead they were all chosen because they were symmetrical and would work in this type of quilt. They seem to all play together nicely though. I don't actually have a photo of the finished quilt top (the photo above is the layout before they were pieced together), because I started basting it literally as soon as the top was put together ;o). Because obsessed.

I've spent the last five nights quilting it, and having the time of my life. But then I stepped back from it today and wondered if it was actually too much quilting. Thanks to my IG and Facebook peeps I had a reality check that it does in fact work, and no there isn't too much quilting - but I am unpicking the paisley quilting around the small pink star, and am planning on leaving a few of the 'borders' unquilted just to limit the busy-ness a little bit. It has been loads of fun playing with the geometry of these stars, and creating secondary patterns using straight lines in and around them.

At this stage I'm only quilting the negative space (except for the couple of stars with a lot of white) and will go back and quilt the stars with matching thread once I'm finished with the background. You might have noticed I don't often use solids for the background in my quilts - but I think it's the right choice for this one. Plus I've recently fallen hard for Cotton Couture solids (this is soft white) while making my Giant Chevron quilt for the QAL - it is absolutely divine to work with and quilts SO well. So I think you might see a few more solid-background quilts from me into the future (especially since PolkaDotTea stock a brilliant selection of Cotton Couture!)

I'm hoping to get this one finished before the end of the month (so yes, it will be my Quiltcon entry), and at this rate it will happen. I really can't see the obsession wearing off before it's finished ;o)

xx Jess

 

PS a massive thank you to everyone who voted for my Breaking Storm quilt in the blogger's quilt festival - it won the large quilts category! Woohoo!!

Night Sky Mini Quilt

A few months ago, I signed up to participate in an Australian handmade birthday swap, where we make a small gift each month for the birthday girl. It is a wonderful idea - I can't think of a better birthday present than getting eleven packages of handmade goodness. Plus it is a lot of fun working on small projects, something I don't tend to do unless it is for a swap or a quick gift.

For our September birthday girl, I decided to make a mini quilt, using Jaybird Quilt's fabulous Night Sky pattern. These blocks come together really quickly, and it is such a cool block I will definitely be making a whole quilt of these on day. I used a couple of prints from Anna Maria Horner's Pretty Potent collection for the inner star, and some Cotton and Steel basics for the outer points. The background is a couple of white on white prints.

When it came to quilting this one, I actually had a few hiccups. My original quilting plan (and the one I started off trying) just didn't work. At. All. I very rarely rip out FMQ, but in this case it was obvious from fairly early on that it was going to look awful so I unpicked it and started over. I'd basically extended the edges of the star points out into the negative space - and it looked terrible. I'm much happier with the medallion-style quilting I went with - it suits this block so much better. 

 I did mark the main straight lines echoing the central hexagon shape, and marked the centre point of the second 'border'. That was my second hiccup - I'd been using my frixion marker to mark the lines and put it down to do something else. When I went back to finish the marking, I accidentally picked up a normal black pen and drew a line before I'd realised. After a minor tantrum, I decided to see if I could quilt over it to hide it (as it was only a very fine line) - and it worked pretty well. That's why there is a straight line through the pebbles at the top left of the top photo ;o). The centre feathery quilting was inspired by how Angela Walters quilted Julie's original Night Sky quilt, but then I just made it up as I went along.

I used two layers of cotton/wool batting for this one, which is why it's so puffy. The quilting is Aurifil 40wt in soft white, which melts into the background beautifully, and just leaves all the texture. I have to admit it was a little sad saying goodbye to this one, but I'm glad it's going to a good (handmade loving) home :o)

xx Jess