Starry Night quilt

Yesterday my goal was to finish my honeycomb stars quilt, and luckily there was nothing else pressing on my work schedule. I was able to use all of my work hours to sew, sew, sew! So very relaxing to start the day quilting while listening to an audio book.

Ta da! This one did finish fast. Once the design with the colors and fabrics was settled, assembling and finishing the quilt was just the kind of simple patchwork I have been craving. And, remember, I have my longarm machine on hand to make quick work of the quilting phase. I was making the binding while my quilt was being quilted, haha! What a luxury.

I’m naming this one Starry Night for the deep gray and navy stars that form the center of the work. All the colors grow subtly lighter as you move away from center, creating a soft, glowing effect. At the edges blush peaks out like the dawn of a new day.

When we’re smack in the middle of a dark night, hope and newness can feel impossible. It is one of the wisdoms of age to have experienced both real darkness and the surprising dawn of new possibility. A child’s faith is innocence. A seasoned adult’s is courage.

I wanted to quilt Starry Night in a way that would not conflict with the tessellating stars. Angular quilting designs would distract from the starry triangles and leafy/natural designs didn’t feel right at all.

Eventually I happened upon Circle Chain, a pattern I’ve used before only for borders. It has the elegance I was searching for, plus the overlapping circles remind me of the overlapping star shapes.

The quilting, with its medium gray thread, shows nicely on some of the plain fabrics on the gray, navy and peach quilt back. The texture it creates is pleasant to the touch.

As for binding, I made a scrappy combination that approximately echos the edge colors of the quilt patchwork.

It’s tempting to save Starry Night for I know not what, but I already have a shelf of unused quilts in my studio that Is near to overflowing. I hope it finds a new home soon.