Shiny Brite - A{nother} 14 in 2014 Finish!

It's amazing how much more likely I am to actually finish things when I have these quilts sandwiched and ready to go.  This one is Shiny Brite, designed by my own sweet daughter and published in the Westwood Acres newsletter last winter sometime.  I actually made 2 of these quilt tops - this one was from the rejected blocks that used the wrong background fabric (the bad news is that my daughter has very definite ideas of what she wants - the good news is that I got to keep the rejected blocks.) 

Her pattern called for sashing the same color as the background, but after a frustrating search for this color, I decided on a lovely aqua by Free Spirit, and I really like it.

The sashing stars  and the binding are from a red dot by Moda - I think it's from Eat Your Fruits and Veggies by Pat Sloan.  I didn't actually like this line much when it came out, but it's got some great basics in it that I actually like a lot.

As with all of my quilting projects, the quilting on this one was kind of learn-as-you-go, and the last quilting I did was much better than the start.  I pored through my copy of Free Motion Quilting by Angela Walters and then tried some of her designs.  I outlined each of the stars, both in the block centers and in the sashing, and then just left them puffy. 

I did the colored part of the blocks in a swirl, but it took me awhile to learn to move around inside the shape, so the early ones are a bit - um - primitive.  I quilted the cream background just with wavy lines, and they really aren't very consistent, but I like how the quilting sets off the blocks, although it might actually bring too much attention to the background and not enough to the blocks.  In the sashing between the blocks I did an hourglass shape.  I've actually tried this before, and this time the shape was much more what I was going for. 

 Finally, in the outside sashing, I tried a double swirl Angela shows in her book.  I never did get them really consistent, so they're not professional or polished, but I learned a lot, and maybe if I try them again they will be better.

The back is a piece of Simply Color I found on sale (60% off!!!) at the drugstore.  In fact, I was going to finish the bolt but there were these nice ladies at the other counter making a chemo quilt for their friend and this turned out to be the perfect backing at a perfect price, so I split it with them.  It's a tad boring, but by the time I had made backs for 5 quilts on the Friday before the last ECMQG meeting, I was just in a git-r-done mood, you know?

All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with this one.