A Finish, and a Very Cool New Project!

Love Heart from Bothy Threads is finished!

Love Heart from Bothy Threads

I sewed on the last of the beads yesterday. It is hard to see them, but here is a close-up.

I always forget how big heart-shapes are. I do wish now I had stitched it on 32 ct instead of 28 ct.


And now for my cool new project!

Keith gave me this for Christmas!

I have always loved astronomy. When I saw this quilt from Haptic Lab, I knew I had to stitch it!
If you are not familiar with Haptic Lab, you can read about them here. They have city quilts from all over the world, and a map of the constellations from the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Very cool!
I am stitching the Northern Hemisphere Constellations.

For the night sky, I chose a marbled cotton from Moda.

The template is placed over the quilt sandwich.

It is a bit awkward stitching this way. I am making the wall or crib size. I cannot imagine stitching the full size version. The template is very stiff, but at the same time, it is fragile. It tears very easily when the stitches are pulled through it. I tried to tape it together in some places but the tape doesn't stick to it.

I am a very traditional quilter, and stitches on this quilt are larger than I am used to making. Also, it is a leap of faith how the stitches will look, because I won't see them until the template is removed. The stitches need to be tight, but it you pull too tight, it tears the template.

It will be hard to show my progress on this because the stitches do not show on the template.

Here is a shot of the back. I think you can see the stitching better here. I chose the same marbled pattern from Moda for the back, but in a light blue, for the day sky.

I haven't gotten to stitching any of the stars yet. I am still working on the construction quilting that holds it together.
By next time, I will hopefully have some of the stars done.

The weather looks like is is starting to warm up here. I am certainly looking forward to that! The chickens and bees are too!

Thanks for all of your kind word about my stitching. Some of you, I tried to get in touch with, but the email was bounced. I have no idea whether is is you or me. Please know that I appreciate all of your comments though.