Red and White Stars Quilt is Finally Finished!

I am so excited to share this quilt. It has been a work in progress for quite a while, but it is now finished, and I think it probably ranks up there with one of the best I have. Which is in no small part due to the amazing quilting work on this one. It was too big to do the quilting on my small machine, so I hired out the long-arm work to a close friend of mine, who is actually my biggest quilt mentor. If you like her work and are interested in hiring her, just leave a comment on this post letting me know and I will get your contact info and connect you.

 When I started this quilt, I was still really new with triangles, so this was a great quilt to work with triangles.

And strips. Fortunately I am an old hand with strips. This quilt had over 60 of these lovely little strips. What I don't have is a photo of the 160 1"x1" red squares. I didn't take a photo of them because by the time I finished cutting them, I never wanted to see them again!

 The quilt came together beautifully. The picture above is the flat top that I had finished at a quilt retreat in Spring of this year. Then I discovered that the finished dimensions were big enough that it was not going to fit in my little machine for the finish quilting. That is where Chris stepped in to save my bacon! She took care of the long-arm quilting and she did an amazing job. I am not sure I emphasized that enough. She did an AMAZING job.

 So here is the finished quilt, spread out on my couch where it will get plenty of good use!

 Here is a close-up of the quilting in the squares. It is really intricate and gorgeous, and it makes the details really pop.

 For the outer border, she had a nice flowered design done in variegated thread. It turned out perfect! It was so nice, I even hand-stitched the binding (with some blood, sweat and tears contributed by my Mom - thanks Mom!).

 Here is a quick picture of the back and front together. I love the color combos. I am contemplating making this pattern again with a cream and black. I think it might end up looking like an Italian tile floor. I think it will be awesome!

 And one more picture of the amazing quilting done on this piece. I wish I had better picture quality. I can't say enough about the quilting! Thank you, Chris, for your incredible work!