A Radiant Star with a Mariner's Compass

Wow, Leigh has another amazing quilt.  I just love the color and fabric choices on this quilt.  The compass with the radiant star is such an unusual combination and it works so well together!  This is a quilt I am putting on my to do list.

I knew it would be hard to get pictures of the quilting on this one as I used a light orange Bottom Line thread from Superior on all the quilting.  I didn't want to thread to shout "Quilting" and I achieved what I was after.  The compass is fun and quirky with the radiant star so I wanted the quilting patterns to be a large contrast, too.  I used a swirl in the compasses and then put ferns in the surrounding inside borders.  Made just the contrast I was after.

On the borders I did a squiggly line following the diagonal piecing and then added one more line between the lines on the piecing.  This makes a really nice contrast in textures to the ferns and swirls on the inside of the quilt.

I wish the star quilting could have shown up better but it doesn't.  I used the "Terry Twist" set at .8 of an inch (that means something to you Statler Stitcher users) and just went from p2p all the way around the star in a counterclockwise circle.  This kept the twist going in the same direction.  The twist goes outside the diamond and it justs really works great.  These diamonds are cut at 3" widths so the larger twist really helps to fill the space and keep the inside of the diamond from getting baggy.  I don't like the baggy look!

It was just hard to quit taking pictures of this beautiful quilt.





And another a shot to show off those great fabric combinations.

It is always fun to work on Leigh's quilts.  She gives me the go ahead to do as I want on them and I really push the limit sometimes.  I love it!

Happy Quilting.

Barb