Saturday, October 11, 2008

Tyger! Tyger! Burning Bright

Finally! Schedules, weather, and the stars all aligned today, allowing me to take some pictures of my completed Star Quilt Along quilt.

completed Star Quilt Along quilt
completed quilt front side
I need to figure out a way to take better pictures of large quilts like this. Or find some additional quilt-holding hands. But we did the best we could with the two of us.

completed quilt back side
The majority of the back is pieced from what was left of the fabrics I used in the blocks. The one exception is the periwinkle blue flower print. I had to buy that to have enough for the back.

A couple of close-ups:

quilting close up
First I quilted the long diagonal lines through the green setting blocks. Next I free-motion quilted in the ditch around all of the colored pieces. I had never done that before and it took awhile before I was really consistently making it into the ditch. But by the end, I was feeling pretty good at it. My only regret is that I really should have used a clear thread to do that instead of the white, because my mistakes are really visible. Then I did a lot of pretty dense stippling over all of the background. Finally, I quilted my border pattern, finished all of the edges by hand, and then completed all of the quilting to the edge of the quilt. All of the quilting ended up using nearly 4 entire spools of thread! I used Superior Threads King Tut 40/3 cotton in White Linen (color 971), 500 yard spools. (Wonderful thread, by the way.) It took a long time to get it all done. But so worth it!

close-up prairie points
Yay prairie points! They turned out so wonderfully, I could not be happier. They were pretty time consuming though, so I doubt I’ll be making a habit out of them. Fun fact: one side has a different number of points than the other three. (I know this because I later found a prairie point laying on the floor. Sigh. I had been wondering why they weren't spacing out quite right.) This picture also offers a closer glimpse of the border design. I like how it sort of breaks up all of the stippling some and frames the quilt.

The label:

quilt label
I’ve named this quilt “Tyger! Tyger! Burning Bright.” My inspiration fabric was the tiger print. The quilt has lots of stars. And I have always loved the William Blake poem. It just seems like a good name. (And even though the picture doesn’t show it, there really is a “t” at the end of “bright” in the label. It’s just hiding in the wrinkles. I double checked to be sure!)

Many thanks to the amazing and wonderful amandajean for hosting this super-fun quilt along. She is an inspiration!

6 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I love your star quilt, especially the edge. Your color choice is so soft and pleasing to the eye.

    I too did Amanda Jean’s quilt along and was so pleased with how big a quilt it turned out to be when it was completed. My quilt went to my nephew who got married in September.

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  2. Robin, you are so talented. Or should I say Sew Talented!!!

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  3. Congratulations! This is so beautiful and I love the border. What a wonderful heirloom this will become.

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  4. Oh wow! It's beautiful! I love, love, love the prairie points!

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  5. what an incredible quilt! the prairie points are a fantastic addition to the quilt. nice nice job!!! (and wowza for using nearly 4 spools of thread!!!!)

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  6. Oh my goodness!!! It looks beautiful! I need to work more on mine ... only I love your colors now way more than my own. LOL.

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