Yesterday I wrote about starting the quilting on “Star Explosion” and I left you wondering if I was CRAZY enough to quilt 1/4-inch lines in the center background.
You all knew it…..the answer was YES!!!!!
Once the outside background was finished, I had to decide on the internal quilting. I knew that I wanted to stitch it “to death” so that the star would pop out more which meant 1/4-inch lines!!!
My biggest concern was which way the lines should run. I finally decided to draw “imaginary” lines at the four corners and the change direction in each quadrant.
As I quilted, I found that I needed a registration line to help me out…..
Once I had quilted along that line, I could easily use the ruler and the foot edge……
…..to quilt the next line……
For more information on this process of quilting 1/4-inch lines, check out this blog post…..
I made a choice to NOT bury as many threads, but instead to travel between the lines. I figured since the travel portion was only 1/4-inch, it would not show as much!!
Interestingly, I found it harder to quilt the lines that were parallel as opposed to the ones that were running from point to point. Consequently, I drew a LOT more registration lines!!
I was thrilled to quilt the VERY last line and, after binding it, took it to the washing machine to get all of those blue lines out!!
When I laid it out to dry, my eye immediately went to this block…..
Now HOW did I miss that!!!!
It was quickly fixed……
I did play a bit of “thread-chicken” and was pleased to see a few yards left…..
By the way, I used two of these 225 yard spools, which means that there is over 450 yards of quilting in the background alone!!
I love the finished quilt…..
….and honestly enjoyed every step in its making.
I have trouble believing that I designed it from scratch!!!
It is now entered in the Modern Quilt Guild “Ruby & Bee” challenge……keep your fingers crossed for me!!!
