Star Quilts

I have been on a roll at the quilt studio lately, finally finishing up quilts that I pieced during Covid. The first of these was a very late wedding gift for my niece and her husband. 

I completed the top nearly three years ago, but Covid closed the quilt studio and when it re-opened I thought I was too out of practice at free-hand quilting to risk working on such an important quilt. When I learned that QuiltPath had implemented a new feature, called "Eclipse," which allows you to pick an overall pattern but define areas to leave unquilted, I realized I had a solution. I excluded the star points and instructed QuiltPath to quilt the background with simple wavy lines. I finished by hand quilting the star points with light grey pearl cotton.

I chose a pretty floral for the backing and a modern gray for the binding.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out and hope the not so newly-wed couple will enjoy it for years to come.

I finished another quilt in time to give to my best running buddy and dear friend for Christmas. Though it is also a star quilt, with its dozens of stars and a decidedly feminine feel, it is as different as could be from the wedding quilt. 

I alternated quarter square triangles, made with mostly small scale florals, with low volume squares. I quilted this one using QuiltPath's "multi-placement" function which allows you to specify multiple blocks to be quilted in one pass, each with the same design.

I really like this style of quilting as the quilt design follows the pieced design and results in interesting secondary patterns. It has become my signature style of quilting.

Many thanks go to Susan and Chris at Over the Top Quilting in Cedar Park, Texas, for their guidance and encouragement. It is always a joy to spend time in their studio!