Batik Star Quilt Top with Silk Ribbon is Finished

Its done! The batik star quilt top is finished! After sitting around for years until I thought of using silk ribbon flowers to create the trail between the pieced stars and the hand appliqued rosettes, I am very happy. I am planning on not letting sit around long until it's quilted...this fall I will quilt it!

I'm very happy with the piano key border. I had to add a lot of new batiks because the original ones were mostly finished but I think it looks good. The silk ribbon has helped tie the border batiks and the star/rosettes fabrics together too...the silk ribbon picks up a lot of the brighter colors in the border.
Here are some close-ups of the silk ribbon vine and you can see that the background is a white on white...
I was lucky to find a dark purple silk ribbon that exactly matched one of the original batiks.
Here's part of the border with one original fabric and several new ones...
and here again, there are just two of the originals.
I'm linking to Finished for Friday at Lit and Laundry and Sew and Tell at Amylouwho. Be sure to stop by both and see the wonderful things finished this week.

The silk ribbon on the batik star quilt is completed! and some links!

The silk ribbon is finished! I'm really happy with the way it looks.
One of the things I love how each bud looks different.
I did two stitches for each bud...first a straight stitch and then either a straight stitch or a ribbon stitch. I mainly used 4mm ribbon but some of the buds are done with 7mm. When I used 7mm I'd do one stitch-the blue bud below is one 7mm stitch.
I've decided on a piano key border and I've cut the fabrics already...it's pretty much used up my stash of batiks and I'm really glad. I'm going to try a microtex needle and see if the sewing goes more smoothly...batiks are so tight!

Andrea at The Train to Crazy is hosting The GREAT De-Stash Challenge...and I'm hesitatingly joining! LOL! Why hesitating...well its easy for me to join any scrap challenges but I think I've become a little afraid of some of the fabric in my closet...I've had them so long and loved them so well-do I have the courage to cut them up? What if I use them and then I see the perfect quilt to use them in-the quilt I've been saving them for-and they're all gone! I know, I know, how silly can I be--pretty silly I guess.

Beth at Love, Laugh, Quilt is hosting a striped fabric challenge and I'm joining in...I just love striped fabric and while I've used lots of homespun stripes I haven't used many bright and colorful ones and I have this wonderful pink striped fabric so that's it-the basis for my striped challenge. Now how to reconcile these two challenges will be the real challenge!

Kaaren at The Painted Quilt is starting a free Redwork BOM on June 20th. Do you love Raggety Anne and Andy? Find out all about this lovely BOM.

Working on 3 projects at once: Yikes!

Look what DH surprised me with....It vacuumed and I machine quilted on my black, white and red log cabin...I think I'm in love!

I'm almost half done...I knew it would be slow going. I have to remember to machine quilt in the early morning or in the evenings when its a little cooler and the air conditioner works well enough. (In other words, when its in the low 90s rather than hovering around 100!)

I embroidered all the vines on the batik star and rosette quilt top and I like it. The trail isn't as noticeable as with the leaves but its there and gives that something extra.
While I was at the LQS teaching last Sunday, I picked up some silk ribbon in shades perfect for this quilt. I think I better test wash the dark purple and the maroon to make sure they don't run...oh, I hope they don't.
I've also been hand quilting on my double wedding ring...I put it on the frame ages ago and really didn't quilt much but now its the perfect summer project. I'm about half done with this "roll" of the frame, once its quilted all along the width of the quilt, then I'll roll again and finish this design.
I used a mixture of vintage fabrics and reproductions for the arcs of the DWR. Here are some pictures of some of the 1950s vintage fabric "wedges" in the quilt...
and here are some 1930s fabric including a feed sack on the right. You can see I'm outline quilting-very traditional!
Now I'm off to watch a film with DH and DS who came up to "rest" after a big final exam this morning...well, I'll watch a film if they can decide on what to order from pay-per-view! :)