One New Quilt Top - One Finally Ready for the Bed

In my little bits of spare time in between all the other quilting and sewing projects, I've been working on another bed size quilt top.  It doesn't really have a name.  It was not a store bought pattern, but a computer designed one using EQ.  The last border was attached Sunday afternoon.

Any ideas on what to name this?

The quilt top finished out at 88" x 88".  By the way, that is sunlight streaming through the window onto the bottom middle of the quilt top.  I don't know what I would do if Kirsten was like most teenagers and her room was never  relatively clean.  I use her bedroom floor to spread everything out to measure during construction and to take a photo of the finished top.  It's the only room in the house big enough to do so!

I don't really have any plans for the quilt yet...but I'm sure I'll think of something.  For now, it goes on the stack of "items waiting to be quilted and finished."

On the topic of "items quilted and ready to use"....I can officially say I have a completed bed size (queen) quilt for my own bed.

This is the quilt top I started last summer when I attended a Bonnie Hunter workshop with my friend Marianne.

Bonnie Hunter calls this pattern "My Blue Heaven"...of course, since there isn't really anything blue in my scrappy version, I have named my quilt "Happy, Scrappy Stars".

As a reminder, Bonnie offers this quilt pattern and tutorial FREE on her website...

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/my-blue-heaven.html

I did have an extra incentive to get the quilt completely finished and ready to use.  My friend Marianne surprised me a couple of months ago by signing us both up for another Bonnie Hunter workshop that will be hosted by a quilt guild in Glen Falls, NY.....THIS WEEK!!!!! The actual workshop day is Friday, May 10th but we both have about a 4 hour drive (from opposite directions) so we plan to meet in Glen Falls on Thursday and check out a few of their local fabric shops.

During Bonnie's workshops, after we take our lunch break, she has a time of "show & tell", where she asks the participants to bring and show any quilt projects we have made using her designs.  I can't wait to show her my scrappy version of her pattern.  When I took the photo above of the quilt spread out on our bed, Ray did the appropriate amount of "oohing & ahhing" over it.  Then I told him that I was happy he liked it but he couldn't sleep under it quite yet....not until AFTER I take it to show Bonnie Hunter and then the very next Wednesday will be my own quilt guild meeting and I want to take it for "show & tell" at that time also.  After all that is done, the quilt will officially be put on the bed and slept under!

Here is a close up of the quilted front....

Close up of the back....

You can't really tell in the photo, but I the backing fabric is actually a tan, mottled color and turned out really nice.  The quilting design is an edge-to-edge design called Mimosa, designed by Urban Elementz.  I used the solid chocolate fabric to make the binding for the quilt.  Believe it or not, I did not use my handy, dandy, binding attachment foot to sew it on....I did it the old fashioned way by sewing the binding on by machine to the front of the quilt, then turning the binding to the back and handsewing with a blindstitch.  It only took DAYS to handsew 350 inches of binding....but it looks great and I'm proud of myself! LOLOL

Now I need to gather up all my sewing stuff and start packing it up to leave on Thursday.  I think I'll go give my Ruthie (1947 Singer Featherweight) a spa treatment (oiling and cleaning) so she'll be all pretty and ready to sew up a storm at the workshop.  By the way....ALL the piecing for my Happy, Scrappy Stars quilt, including sewing the binding to the front of the quilt....was completed on my Ruthie!  She's a good ol' girl and a workhorse that LOVES to sew!