Cloudy Night Sky {Finished Quilt}

Cloudy Night Sky is finished and officially submitted for consideration to QuiltCon! I have no idea how many total hours I spent making the quilt, but I know I spent over 40 hours on the quilting alone. You probably want to see finished photographs, but I do love to share about the nerdy stuff, so first I am going to share some of the final details I worked on to get the quilt finished. 😉

I spent hours on Saturday carefully measuring, locally blocking, and working to get the quilt as square as I could using my spray bottle, iron, and acrylic rulers. Then I marked out what I *thought* my trim line would be on each side of the quilt and sewed a stabilizing stitch just inside of that line. Then I put the quilt on the floor and measured it a lot more, and after learning more, I went back and worked on a few areas. THEN I pulled out the laser square to double check my work. And I had my husband double check with me. Then we measured some more (specifically, the last measurement we checked was both diagonal corner to corner dimensions).

This might just be one of the most square quilts I’ve ever made, but that has way more to do with the time I put into squaring / blocking it on Saturday. After trimming, it measured 48½” wide by 60½” long. Just like it was supposed to!

Cloudy Night Sky – Binding Detail

Saturday evening, just as the light was starting to fade, I got the binding sewn to the front of the quilt. In the photo above, I’m sharing how well I caught this ¼” seam allowance with the binding. In the photo you can also see that after the binding was attached, I went back and stitched another line ⅛” away from the raw edge. This is a Quick Binding Tip that I’ve been using for a while now, and I really feel like it helps my bindings feel full and crisp.

Cloudy Night Sky – Binding Sewn to Quilt Top

After getting the binding attached to the quilt top, I pressed it away from the quilt top and snapped another quick photograph. It’s a much wider frame than the final binding will be, but it was a nice sanity check for me on the choice for binding. The only other binding option I seriously considered was going with a facing, but I really do feel like a traditional binding protects the quilt and lengthens the life of a quilt. In my experience, once a quilt is put in use, it is the binding that takes the wear and tear from our skin oils, and a binding can be much more easily replaced and repaired (in my opinion).

Cloudy Night Sky

I am very honored to finally be able to share the finished Cloudy Night Sky quilt.

Cloudy Night Sky is a study in how atmospheric and lighting conditions are important in order to see the stars at night. Clouds and light pollution often obscure from view the stars that we know are shining down. With just a slight shift in conditions and lighting, the stars pop out to greet us.

Cloudy Night Sky Detail

Quilt as desired can be some of the most intimidating instructions in a quilt pattern, and quilts with lots of negative space can increase the anxiety and pressure to “get it right”. I created this design in order to write an article sharing the process I use to develop a quilting plan that transforms the negative space into a secondary design element. I could not wait to turn the quilt and quilting plan I created as a process demonstration into reality.

Cloudy Night Sky – Quilt Backing

I did not love working so close to the QuiltCon submission deadline to make this quilt. I had intentions of making it all year, but the stars finally aligned and I’m thankful I was able to get it done and submitted in time. To everyone else hustling to get your quilts finished and submitted by Tuesday, good luck! May we all savor the feeling of pride in work well done.

Thankfully, it won’t take me much longer to put the finishing touches on the pattern for Cloudy Night Sky; I anticipate having it ready to release tomorrow as long as nothing unexpected crops up this afternoon!

Update: The Cloudy Night Sky Digital Quilt Pattern is now available.

Want the full story of this quilt? Here are all my previous blog posts about it:

• Curated Quilts: Negative Space
• Cloudy Night Sky {Fabric}
• Cloudy Night Sky {Fabric Prep}
• Cloudy Night Sky {Piecing Thread Selection}
• Cloudy Night Sky {Pieced Quilt Top}
• Cloudy Night Sky {Marked and Basted}
• Cloudy Night Sky {Details, Details}
• Cloudy Night Sky {Quilting Update}
• Cloudy night Sky {Quilting Update 2}
• Bonus: Quilt Show Entry Tips

Linking up with October 2023 Favorite Finish, Needle and Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pageant, and TGIFF.