Pulsar {Quilting Progress}

In order to match the vision and quilting plan that I have for Pulsar, I have been consistently putting in 2-4 hour days of quilting 4-6 days of the week for 6 weeks; and it’s not quite finished yet.

Pulsar Quilting – 1 Week

The first week of quilting was all about changing thread colors and establishing the boundary for the radiating, pulsing star in the background. I opted to quilt the entire quilt with my walking foot, and instead of traveling overtop of any previously quilted lines, I am starting and stopping and burying lots (and lots, and lots, and lots…) of thread tails.

Each chevron and the center star were first outlined with a matching thread color (Aurifl 2120, 2145, 2277, and 2460) and then 5 lines of echo quilting were added at approximately 1/2″ spacing. The pulsing star in the background is also at that same 1/2″ spacing.

Pulsar Quilting – 2 Weeks

The second week saw the background of the first two background stars getting filled in with 1/2″ spaced lines. This is the point when I ordered side threading needles and 2 more large spools of Aurifil 2784 (Dark Navy) thread. I think in the end I won’t need the third spool, but it’s going to be close.

Special thanks to my husband for holding up the quilt for me each week so that I could take these photos and so that I could stand back and get a better perspective.

Pulsar Quilting – 3 Weeks

Week 3 is when the reality of how long this is going to take set in. I was able to get all of the 3rd star and the first two sections of the outer edges complete at 1/2″ spacing.

You might be wondering what I mean about how long it is going to take (and what’s this about 6+ weeks??) as it looks nearly done here. Well, my plan was always to make the background quilting more dense than the spacing of the radiating/pulsing stars so that they are more obvious. At this point, I realized going to full matchstick (1/8″ spacing or less) was not going to happen. I was just hoping I had the stamina to get it all down to ~1/4″ spacing.

Pulsar Quilting – 4 Weeks

At the end of week 4, I was freshly invigorated. All the basting pins were removed from the quilt top and the central/first background star is quilted to ~1/4″ spacing. I was pretty excited to see the visual change that increase in density made.

Pulsar Quilting – 5 Weeks

I really dug in and got a lot done in week 5: all of the background second star and almost a quarter of the third star were doubled up in density. In the areas where both sides of the 1/2″ space lines that create the background radiating/pulsing star have the quilting doubled up to 1/4″, it is much more visible, hooray!

Also, as I am writing the post I am realizing that the quilt is rotated 90-degrees in every photograph. I guess I need to figure out which way I really want to be up: with the center background quilting lines running vertically or horizontally? My original plan showed them as horizontal.

Pulsar Quilting – 6 Weeks

I wasn’t expecting to get as much done in week 6; I got my second COVID19 vaccine in the middle of the week. However, I was able to complete all of the doubling up of the background third (and largest) star.

Based on my progress, I’m thinking I’ll have all the quilting completed in week 7, so I’m tentatively planning on releasing the Pulsar pattern on May 28th. Fingers crossed that I can get the quilting, binding, and pattern all wrapped up between now and then. Wish me luck!

What’s the longest you’ve ever spent quilting a quilt?