My First Finish - and it is March Already.

It seems I am a bit slow in getting my projects to a finish this year, but slow is still progress, right? This quilt began in 2016 as a New Year's Day Mystery with Merry Mayhem. I think this might have been my first mystery I participated in with her. I am very happy with the final quilt.

The original directions were for 4 blocks in a row with wide rows on each side for lots of white space. It was really quite pretty, but I fell in love with these star blocks and decided to make 12 more for my own setting. 

I copied the center star as cornerstones in the sashings for some extra interest and expansion of the design. It is very scrappy and made with reds, greens, golds, and browns. I also used various beige and cream fabrics for the backgrounds. 

The backing is a plain muslin and the binding I used was a print that had all the colors I used in making the stars. Strangely, that was the hardest decision in finishing this quilt as I debated between a plain cream binding (safe choice) or go with framing it by using a multi-color print. It should have been done months ago! 

I sewed on a piece of the binding fabric diagonally in one corner to partition off an area to sign and date the quilt. 

It finished at 85" x 85" and I used up 12 yards of stash. 

So I recommend Merry Mayhem Mysteries. They run each year with fabric requirements and pre-cutting the week before the new year begins. I have since participated in two other mysteries. Twist and Shout was done earlier this year and you can read about it here.  It still needs to be quilted.

Happy Stitching!