I am a topper. A serial quilt topper. You see, once a quilt top has come together, my vision for the quilt design is complete in my eyes! Nevermind the fact that quilt isn’t ACTUALLY complete yet. This is no more evident than in the the timeline of my quilt alongs on this blog, and how long it takes me to actually finish those quilts properly.
My sampler quilt from The Bee Hive blocks (2015)? Two years.
My Modern HST Sampler quilt (2016)? One year + 2 months.
My Milky Way Sampler quilt (2017)? Seven months total to quilt and bind it.
Well, there’s some improvement, ha! But yes, at last, my Milky Way Sampler quilt is bound. I finished quilting it back in May, but bound it on the weekend. It took less than an hour to machine bind it, but let’s not focus on THAT particular stat, shall we?!
I quilted it back in March/April, using a mid-grey Aurifil thread to first outline the stars as a way of “stitching in the ditch” aka securing and stabilising the quilt top. I then got to work filling the background with swirls. It’s probably one of my most favourite free motion quilting designs to use, and looks particularly special on star quilts, as it gives me all the Van Gogh Starry Night feels!
The stars were colour-matched with 40w Aurifil thread and then filled in with some straight line dot-to-dot quilting. Nothing too dense, but enough to add some fun detailing. By having the more-densely quilted background, and a few lines on the prints, it really makes the stars pop.
I found a dark grey stripey print at Spotlight that has a touch of gold metallic – a little fun, but mostly blending in with the background so that the rainbow stars shine!
The Milky Way Sampler pattern includes instructions for a border if you prefer the stars to be floating more, but I didn’t add one to mine. It’s a beginner friendly pattern, and you can find the monthly tips and tricks posts here to go with each block, plus a full foundation paper piecing tutorial here. So if you’ve never tried it before, or have struggled with trickier patterns, I highly recommend trying this one. It’s a gentle introduction to foundation paper piecing, and such a great skill to have in your quilting arsenal.
Quilting Tangent says
Make a revisible quilt, use 2 tops same size. It will clear up the pile of tops faster and makes pretty quilts.
Alyce says
That would be useful… if I had two the same, haha!
Liz Williams says
What did you use to back the Milky Way Quilt? Can we see the reverse side now it’s done? I bought the bundle which is s project-in-waiting!
X
Alyce says
Oh! Ha, I totally forgot to include a pic of that. It’s a teal print with navy constellations… I’ll see if I have a pic on file and add it in to the post.
Dianne Giltner says
I tried to order the Milky Way quilt pattern at the $7.50 price, but it keeps coming up as $9.95. Thank you for your assistance.
Alyce says
Hi Dianne, the sale ended last Friday, that’s why it’s back to $9.95 🙂