I finished it!!!
Here is Santa Fe String Star. It’s from Bonnie Hunter’s String Fling book. This is one of the quilts that I loved in the book from the moment I opened it. Stars are a favorite of mine….and then the original was done in what looked like to me a red background. For me stars and red is wonderful.
After much debate…I ended up going with a blue batik for a background and my-oh-my, I’m sure glad I did! I love the blue. Connie always gives me a hard time about using red all the time. (Aren’t you proud of me Connie?)
Another debate I did was on whether to add the outer border or not. I’m so glad I did. Adding it made this a really nice size. (No green grass here yet!)
I also did a debate on backing and binding. This is what I ended up with….
I didn’t know if I liked the “very Civil War” fabric on the backing with the bright batik on the front….I know, I know…sometimes I too picky and other times not picky enough!! I did go with gold for the binding. Typically I would have used the blue batik…oh my, “out of my box” again.
I love the scappiness…. in my world scrappy=happy….kind of like polka dots=happy.
That makes a UFO completely and entirely finished. It isn’t just a top…IT’S FINISHED!!
The worries I had about it laying flat….they were needless. I didn’t have any troubles at all. I didn’t do a fancy design on this at all….just a stipple…when quilts are busy I like a simple stipple. I think it’s more calming and a simple stipple lets the colors be the eye candy.
If you remember I used charcoal thread on the top. I’m sure a multitude of you were yelling NO!! But it turned out good…navy thread was on the back.
Take a look and note the corner. I have heard quilters say that they don’t like same fabrics touching on a scrappy quilt….look, three flying geese with the same center are touching. It’s okay. In fact, I think it adds interest. I love the freedom that scrappy quilts give because they “allow” same fabrics to touch. Planned quilts are…well, planned.
One note on the pattern. After you get your star sewn together, test the size of square that is needed for the corner back ground fabric to complete the quilt. For me, I needed pieces that were larger than the pattern indicated. A blog reader gave me the advice to cut the pieces bigger, sew them in place and then cut the center of the quilt down. I did that. I couldn’t cut it to the size the pattern suggested so I also added four more flying geese to each side of the border….and then added the outside border-making my quilt bigger. I don’t think there was a pattern misprint. I think those little diamonds have “give” to them and some stretched.
As I was folding it up I said to Hubby, “This one, I think I’ll keep.” He laughed and asked me how many I could keep. Men…what do you do with them?
Find me here Wednesday morning…I’ll be working on another UFO. I hope I’m as happy with that one as I am with this one!
To see other finishes check out Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Scrap Addict.