Solstice Stars Almost Complete

After blogging about each star I got wrapped up in other posting about other projects that I had completely neglected to update on the status of my beautiful Solstice Star quilt so we are going to do a fast forward on it’s progress thus far…

(Get ready for a photo progress adventure!)

I decided to do a double row of 4″ hexagons at the bottom of the quilt so I went to town on the train rides to and from work for a week hand basting and sewing them together.

4″ Hexagon Templates

Hexagon Travel Kit

Yup I use a sandwich tupperware container to keep all my stitching supplies together to hand baste the hexagons on-the-go. It works PERFECTLY!

Yummy 4″ Hexagons

I then got to work grouping and laying out all the hexagons in a pleasing order and hand sewing them together. Real quick, let’s talk about how much I did not love hand sewing all of these little jerks together. The end result was absolutely worth it and a big THANKS to the ladies at the Boston Modern Quilt Guild meetup last month who quite unanimously voted that I should do a double row of hexies not the single row I’d intended on doing.

Putting my sampler blocks and some hexies on the design wall at the BMQ Guild Meetup in October

Loving these big hexies

Laying out Clusters of Hexagons

PS the laundry in that basket NEVER got folded cause I was way too into this quilt… Once the hexagons were all stitched into a row I applique’d them to the solid Bella Stone at the bottom of the quilt top.

Two pieces but it’s coming together!!!

Sneak Peek of the back with all the extra hexies appliqued on

I found a understated flower/snowflake grey and white (with specks of blue) print at the store and while the grey isn’t 100% color match I thought it was just right to use for the backing. It’s a nod to the floral prints and the grey on the front while also being a beautiful backing: understated and simple.  I didn’t get pics of the other appliques but I think there ended up being 6 hexagons appliqued in random spots on the back. Basting this sucker wasn’t fun either cause I have no hard floor large enough to lay it out so I had to baste on carpet. There’s DEFINITELY tucks and puckers but I’m hoping a wash will accentuate the crinkly quilty feel and hide them (as I’ve quilted I’ve been smoothing and re-adjusting my basting pins along the way.

Basted and ready to Quilt

Because I’m apparently a masochist I decided I’d quilt this (wait for it) 80″x~80″ behemoth on my home machine. Mind you I’m not on some fancy Janome with a mega throat, it’s a Brother’s 6000i that I have put through the ringer time and time again. FML why do I do things like that to myself. I had planned on doing straight lines but realized there was NO WAY I had the skill, patience or ability to make them straight so I went with wavey lines horizontally across all the solids with some stitch-in-the-ditch at the stars,

Wavy Lines in Progress

Along the way I found Girl Scout cookies and ate the entire sleeve of them to my face why crying at the fact that I may have bit off more than I can chew trying to quilt a full (nearly queen) size quilt at home.

Quilting + Thin Mints = #Winning

Let’s also talk about that time I quilted about 4 feet in length with no bobbin thread cause it had run out. Then after replacing the bobbin it hadn’t threaded properly so I re-sewed that same segment with HORRENDOUS tension and had to un-sew it.  The 3rd time was a charm but a large glass of wine was required to recover emotionally.

Poor tension and un-sewing and crying = quilting

If you’ve read this far then either you’re a quilter and you get the statement “Poor tension and un-sewing and crying = quilting” if you’re still reading and you’re not a quilter then you may be friends and family and now you understand why I’ve been so moody lately. Quilting is emotionally challenging, there’s ups an down, successes and failures and when it’s over I will wash this quilt then likely curl up in it and have a good cry of joy, triumph and sheer exhaustion.

That’s the progress thus far. I’ve got a little more quilting to do and some decisions about whether to try some FMQ on the stars and hexagons but she’s almost done. In just about two months from concept start to finish I’m quite proud of how Solstice Stars has come along.

I had considered waiting till the quilt was done to post this long “how it was made” story about it but I decided that I’d rather let the “Look how F’ing beautiful this quilt is” post should be nothing but that.  The result is a culmination of the journey and this journey has been wonderful so far.

Linking up with with Lee at Freshly Pieced and visiting many other work-in-progress Wednesday posts to provide encouragement and support to my fellow Internet sewists and quilters.