Quilting Twinkle Stars!

I think I've found a new love!

Big-stitch quilting...

♥♥♥

Twinkle Stars is my RSC project in blues for January, and even though I got a late start, I managed to get it pieced fairly quickly.  I simply stitched the four stars blocks together and added a corner triangle on each end.

Last week I learned how to use my long-neglected tri-recs rulers, and this week I dug out a few others to help me cut those triangles ....

It sure does help to have the right tools, doesn't it?

The quilt was quickly sandwiched and pinned for quilting - I want to get this one done and use it on my kitchen bar before the winter season is over!

Deciding on a quilting design was a little problematic for me.  I could think of a lot of different ways to do it, but none of them clicked.  I kept thinking that all that white looked a little too much to me, but I really wanted to keep it VERY simple so I could finish quickly, which meant not a lot of free-motion razzle-dazzle, and no special shapes, etc.  I was also determined to keep the beautiful star as the STAR ... I didn't want a lot of quilting to take away from its shine :*)  Still, just quilting in the ditch was too blah .....

I'm not sure how Big Stitch quilting finally occurred to me, but I'm pretty sure it was because I had recently seen this post by Sherri Noel at Rebeccca Mae Designs and was totally smitten with the look of her beautiful quilting!  Fortunately, I had pinned the post to my Pinterest board and was able to find it quickly.   

♥ Click HERE for Sherri's wonderful tutorial ♥

I knew immediately that it was exactly what this little runner needed, so I hurriedly ran to see if I had any royal blue in my perle cottons - and YES!!!!

I was thrilled, because there are no options for purchasing quality perle cottons in a variety of colors quickly in my area.  Once again, a stash purchase of these threads during one of my quilt show vending sprees paid off!

It took only a few evenings while watching some taped shows on TV to get this quilted :*)  I used a blue Frixion pen to draw my lines, and then simply ironed them away!  You can see in the below photo at the top where some of them have not yet been ironed.  If you have questions about the use of Frixion pens, Kathy's Quilts recently posted an excellent article on this subject with some great research links HERE ♥  I use them frequently and have never had an issue.  I am careful, however, about using them on dark fabrics when I know they will not be covered completely by stitching.

I didn't worry about the length of my stitches, which made for a very enjoyable, stress free quilting project.  I just love the simple organic look they add to my stars!

The dark blue from the center of the stars will be the binding - which I hope to get done today - woohoo!!!!

There's a whole party of blue stitching going on over at Angela's So Scrappy blog today, so hop on over and see what all the fun is about!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

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