Luminous Layers QAL – A Top

A quilt made of stars, designed by my friend Sandra of mmmQuilts, what could be better? In Maine, on our little island off the coast of Portland, we are blessed with beautiful night skies and clear views of stars like I have never seen in my life! I love looking at them and relish the vast mysteries of the sky when we are blessed with a clear night. When I started this quilt, I thought of our skies here, and I am so pleased to share my progress.

A Quick Hello

I did it – I finished this top and quilted 2 benefit quilts for my guild in Massachusetts. I have had these a long time, and they will finally be given back to my guild next week. My original intent was to do one a month, but some got buried and that intention slipped. However, I am now caught up and will hopefully post about them by the end of the week. I give them back bound and washed…only fair right?

Now, last week, I mentioned I am heading off to retreat, and I would like to quilt one more quilt…that maybe a stretch but I intend to load it on the frame later today so it is ready when I am! Honestly, the unpacking has stalled, but I am not off island as much as I was last week. It is my hope that I continue to quilt and organize when I am done with sewing for the day. I need to step it up a bit in this area. Jonathan (my DH and excellent quilt holder) has a cardiac ablation Thursday, so fingers crossed that all goes well…prayers welcome!

Now, on to showing off the quilt top!

The Process of Putting it Together

When we left off last time, this is what the top looked like, missing a big old bit in the center. You can read all about the steps leading up to it here. The next steps involved making the center stars, here on Sandra’s post.

The fun thing is that you don’t “finish” the center star so you can attach it to next layer of star points that surround the little ones.

Here is the next week’s prompt, all ready to be sewn together. Sandra recommends using the webbing approach and I like it for things like this.

Here is a picture of this in process on my sewing machine. I have attached the first 3 columns and the 4th column is stacked near the seam ripper from top to bottom. You can even see the 4th row hanging off the table by the two connecting threads.

Here it is all ready to have its rows sewn together. I had already connected the first 3 rows and last rows. I had the other two rows apart to see how the construction was going to work out. It all fit, which always feels like a miracle to me.

She is a real beauty! I did one thing that I really love in this. I put some of the background in the center…remember the ombre fabric was not going work next to the teal so I picked a navy batik as a substitute. When I picked my fabrics, I decided most of my stars would be in the yellow-orange-gold family, the teal seemed to work well for the medium stars, so that was the one exception, mostly due to my stash. Now, if you take a close look you will see I used 4 of the dark parts of the ombre, creating a little halo around the center star!

It will be quilted (I think) upon my return from the retreat for the June 15th party. I will need to come up with a plan – I often do custom on these kinds of quilts, but time may dictate a different approach. We shall see.

Coming Up on My Blog

I will be on quilt retreat June 2-5, which probably means adding a few more things to the quilting que. Yikes!

Here is what you should see soon:
-Fire and Rain with Carolyn Friedlander fabrics (top done)
-2 Charity Quilts (binding needed)
– Diatom (waiting for courage to quilt)
– Luminous Layers quilted
-Yoga 2 (top done)

Linking Up

Luminous Layers Assembly
Monday Musings