Star Gazing

I finished this quilt last year, back in November! The photo shoot was a bit of a rush before it was delivered, and unfortunately the best place for photographing the black left a shadow from the phone line at that time of day...

It's made from solid fabrics, but my main idea (apart from using the recipient's favourite colours of black and hot pink) was to 'complete' the partial stars through quilting - as well as adding some entirely wholecloth stars.

The pieced and wholecloth parts of the stars are quilted the same way, although I used a deeper (more burgundy) thread to quilt the wholecloth parts.

I used a ruler and Hera marker to draw out the remainder of the stars, which meant no lines to erase afterwards.

The completely wholecloth stars are different. I quilted the outline of the star in deep pink thread, then echoed either side of that with black BottomLine thread to help them stand out better. Then I filled the centre with varying sized pebbles, each with a little swirl/spiral inside.

I filled the background with the same black BottomLine in a freehand swirl design which I've used a lot recently, and which has a very different effect when used to fill odd-shaped spaces; instead of looking like smooth swirls, it takes on the tone of what feels to me like an arabic or middle-eastern motif.

It measures around 52in square.

My extended break from blogging started when I first tried to post this and had issues getting the photos in. I'm still having trouble; both computers result in different problems. My laptop can't seem to upload photos at all since it upgraded to the new version of IE, and my older desktop can only upload one at a time, and I can only navigate with the arrow keys, not the mouse (though ti still works fine elsewhere, and still does some tasks in blogger). I am trying to post more frequently - I'd appreciate any tips to help me do so!