Star Crossed Stitch quilt - done!

Thank you all so much for your support last week when I was unquilting this quilt and trying something new. I am so excited to share the finished quilt with you!  This is definitely one of my favorite finishes in a while, thanks to the fun I had quilting this one and the great texture the quilting created.  I love densely quilted quilts like this one, so I'm quite sure it's going to be one of my favorites for a while to come.

before washing

after washing

A while back, I fell in love with a block I saw in a copy of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns, on loan from the library, and sketched it out in my sketchbook.  Many months later, back in January, when the fabulously talented Betz White sent me some of her fantastic organic line of fabric for Robert Kaufman, I revisited the sketch and decided to finally make the block.  I called it a Star Crossed block, as it felt like a fab combination of a star and cross block, and I slowly started working on this quilt bit by bit, in between what feels like a zillion other obligations that I can't share yet.

I was super excited to finish this quilt...until I realized that I didn't have a clue how I wanted to quilt it.  Usually, I don't make that decision until after I see the finished quilt top.  When I looked at this quilt top, I just couldn't seem to decide.  I wanted to do something other than my usual smooth stipple, and I thought a pointy stipple would be fun, but rather than mocking it up to see how it would look, I just went for it.  Whoops.  I hated it.  Intensely.  So much so that I ripped it all out.  Note to self: always mock up the quilting.  Always.  (ETA: All I do to mock up my quilts is print out a photo and draw out my FMQ design on it with a highlighter.  It's uber-low-tech and fast.)

before washing

Somehow or another, I got baptist fans on the brain, and just couldn't let go.  So I did them.  And they were really fun to do!  The way I stitched these fans is indeed in a continuous line, with one start at the beginning of each row of fans and one stop at the end.  I'm putting the finishing touches on a tutorial of how I did this quilting to share with you all tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

before washing

I'm so happy I went with my gut and ripped out the pointy stipple quilting stitches I started with.  I'm also really glad I tried a new style of quilting, even though I really thought it was going to be either too difficult or too tedious.  Trying something new can be so much fun!

after washing

Thanks again, Betz, for sharing some of your lovely fabrics for this project!

Quilt Stats
Name: Star Crossed Stitch quilt
Block Pattern: Star Crossed block
Size: 34" x 44"
Fabrics: Betz White's Stitch Organic collection for Robert Kaufman along with some coordinating fabrics from Just Dandy, Katie Jump Rope, and So Sophie
Backing: Remants from Betz White's Stitch Organic collection
Quilting: All-over baptist fan free motion quilting (tutorial coming tomrrow!) by yours truly
Binding: Scrappy binding, using remants from Betz White's Stitch Organic collection, hand finished