My Mini-Quilt is finished

The finished quilt front - note the quilting in the ditch with the stars

I finished my quilt and renamed it "Christmas Star/Autumn Pumpkins"  It is 14" x14" square.  I enjoyed making this little quilt and sharing it with all of you.  After I finished paper-piecing my middle star within a star with fabrics from my stash, (the smaller star was hand pieced), I took a look at my stash to determine what I could use for my double borders and I just loved the black & gold print for the smaller border and then used a beautiful green mistletoe for the larger border.  I did make both borders a little larger than the pattern called for and I love the way it turned out.  I then decided to machine quilt it using clear thread in both the bobbin and the upper thread, (since the print was so busy I did not want to distract from it).  I did stitch in the ditch for my center star and then used my machine embroidery stitch for the squiggly lines in my outer border.





note the surface stitching on the pumpkin block, the quilting that was
 done on the front shines thru on the back side of this quilt



Choosing the backing for my piece was a little harder - mmmm - What would it look like if I used autumn colors on the back?  I had some leftover blocks from a project I did last year, I could add a small border and then applique it onto the back...So my reversible quilt was born.  I chose a multicolor striped fabric, (leftover from some Christmas projects), to use on the back.  I did some surface quilting on my pumpkins with some small stippling in the background & outlining the pumpkins to give some texture and help them stand out.  Then I applied the block by using the same squiggly lines around the border after carefully lining up the patch to match the small border on the "Christmas Star" side.  You can see the quilting that I did on the front much better on the Autumn side.  I do think it turned out well and would love your comments.  right now it is hanging out on my livingroom sofa table and does look quite handsome there. 


 



 Surface Quilting: This is where I quilted on the surface with the batting underneath and then applied the block to the background surface.  This way I could quilt the pumpkins without interfering with the quilting done on the front of the quilt.