I was really hoping that there would be a brief rain shower at the end of the day yesterday so I might get a photo of this finished quilt with a rainbow, but it just got cloudy: no rain and no rainbow. The little bit of overcast was pretty nice for taking the quilt outside for a few photographs, though.
Sky Full of Stars using Love is Love Fabric Collection
My 6’2″ tall husband gamely tucked in behind this 48″ square finished quilt so that I could get the photographs for this post. The look on his face and the amount of belly laughter we had after I handed him the quilt was priceless, “I’m supposed to hide behind this? I’m over two feet taller than it is!” He did a wonderful job, and as always I’m deeply appreciative that he’s willing to hold quilts for me.
Sky Full of Stars using Love is Love Fabric Collection
As you likely remember, the fabrics I selected to work with from the Love is Love Pride Fabric Collection started with a rainbow of 8 prints. Those prints form the outer ring of stars in the quilt. I chose to really highlight the Transformation Rainbow, Pronoun Badges Rainbow, and Pride Stripes Philadelphia prints in the center of the quilt with the Pride Stripes Philadelphia print also making the perfect binding to complete the quilt.
Sky Full of Stars using Love is Love Fabric Collection – Quilt Back
I used the leftover fabric from the rainbow of 8 outer stars to make a pieced backing, which I find super bright and beautiful.
Sky Full of Stars using Love is Love Fabric Collection – Pride Stripes Philadelphia print
The wonderful thing about the curve stars is how they can allow prints like many in the Love is Love fabric collection to shine. When preparing the fabric for the quilt, I took my time and placed carful consideration on how I wanted the prints to look when pieced into the quilt. For the center Pride Stripes Philadelphia print, I opted to center the black spirit stripe across the center. For the Pronoun Badges Rainbow print, I made sure that the badges were cut such that they would be in the center of the star running vertically.
Sky Full of Stars using Love is Love Fabric Collection – Acronym Fuchsia print
And for the two Acronym prints (in fuchsia here but also available in teal) I centered the LGBTGIA+ horizontally across the stars so make sure that all of the letters would be seen when pieced.
Sky Full of Stars using Love is Love Fabric Collection – Quilt Back Detail
As I’m sure you noted, I opted for spiral quilting out from the center of the quilt using my walking foot. The lines have a 1″ spacing, and while I tried to center the quilt top on the backing as best I could when basting the quilt, I was still really amazed and happy to see how close I was able to get it. If it were perfectly centered front to back, the spiral should start 1/4″ away from the center exactly between the yellow and orange prints. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!
You can read more about how I set up and begin spiral quilting at the bottom of my post about quilting my 2018 Aurifil Designer of the Month quilt.
Sky Full of Stars using Love is Love Fabric Collection
I’m not quite done working with these prints just yet. Making the curve star blocks creates beautiful, large scraps that are easy to turn into 5″ finished drunkard’s path blocks, so I know what I’ll be sewing this weekend!
The Love is Love Pride Fabric Collection by Mathew Boudreaux (whom you may likely know as Mister Domestic) is available exclusively through Amazon.com and is printed by PBS Fabrics. All fabric shown in this post was provided by PBS Fabrics.
Linking up with June Favorite Finish, Finished or Not Friday and Beauties Pageant 134.
Precise piecing and a beautiful finish! You should be very proud of this quilt. Perhaps a great piece to enter into the next quilt show?
Beautiful finish! I love how you were able to center the prints within the stars and the spiral quilting is fabulous!
Beautiful quilt! I love the careful placement of the fabrics. The spiral was a great choice for the quilting.
What an awesome job! And the quilting is perfect!
BTW, I visited the National Quilt Museum last week and recognized your quilt immediately in the Modern Quilt exhibit. It’s even more impressive in person.
That is a very cool quilt with fabulous quilting. Someday I should try circle quilting. It really is interesting. I’m laughing with you guys about trying to hide hubby. I general crop my photos so only fingers and sometimes shoes are left. On the other hand, we don’t have a glorious jungle behind our house!
Beautiful job! However did you sew such a perfect spiral?
Beautiful quilt, and I love how you quilted it. I’m wishing you took a “behind the scenes” photo of your husband all crouched and contorted, hiding behind the quilt! 😉
Way to highlight the fabrics, and your spiral quilting just made it!
Such a gorgeous quilt – I am imagining a rainbow in your photo!!
I like how you were able to highlight the special fabrics!
You really used all those fabrics to great advantage. It’s a gorgeous quilt and a great one to finish during Pride month. It’s nice to have spouses that support your quilting endeavors. Your Guy did a great job behind the scenes.
I adore this and the circle quilting is just perfect. Amazingly close on the centering of the back. I have decided to never worry about that – pretty freeing for me. Hooray for husbands who hold quilts in ridiculous circumstances, or even ordinary circumstances!
The design and color placement leaves me wanting to make this quilt. The back color sections are a nice added treat. Well done.
I cannot get over how much I truly LOVE this quilt! The fabrics in it really are gorgeous. YOu put them together in the perfect places as well.