Sunrise: Winter Solstice

I finished the binding, hanging sleeve and quilt label yesterday. It turned out slightly larger than I expected it to, and I'm going to have an interesting time finding a permanent hanging spot for this after it's returned from the show.

Here are some inadequate photos of the finished piece. I will have better pictures at the show, where I can (hopefully)  back up far enough to get the entire thing in the camera frame.

This first picture has the entire top of the quilt resting on the railing, so you can't see it at all...

The second photo shows the entire quilt, bu the stairway is chopping off the lower-right corner.

I had a lot of trouble with the quilt backing on this one. There are so many folds and puckers, I don't even want to photograph it. This quilt is not "ribbon worthy" I'm really sorry to say. There are too many mistakes and problems with both the construction and the quilting. I won't enter it in an adjudicated show, but I am showing it on March 27th at the Harvest Quilter's Guild Show, and I may be showing it again next year at the Garden State Quilter's Guild Show, unless I have some newer and better pieces to display.

I am quite happy with the design work, and most of the quilting that I did. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in various techniques.

I learned a lot, the hard way, about foundation piecing and Y-seams versus y-seams. If I attempt another medallion like this one in the future (and that's highly likely, since I want to do a Sunrise: Summer Solstice quilt as well, which may segue into a series of wall hangings for the Solar Holidays), I will use the techniques I read about in the Piecing Workshop book (referenced in a post last month).

Now I have to piece that Quilts For Kids quilt, and make a doll, and write the "cards" to display with the pieces I am putting in the show in a couple of weeks.

All in all, I am happy with what I did with the dozen star blocks I received at the Harvest Quilter's Guild holiday party this past December.

A couple more things to note: I used up all the blue star fabric that I had in the outer border and binding (I have about 36" of bias strips left of it), I only have batting scraps left (this quilt has pieced batting in it), and I am going to need to head out to the Fabric Warehouse soon for backing fabrics, as I am running low on large yardage pieces for that as well.