Snowmen in the Stars!

This was such a refreshing quilt and it's soooooo cute!!  The owner told me exactly what she wanted; I made a few suggestions , which she accepted, and that was it!  This quilt is a small throw / wall hanging measuring 49" x 69" which the owner plans to have appraised and then donated for auction.  (do you hear the chatter, chatter of my teeth upon my hands?)  Yes, I am nervous about that part.  But I did my best!

So here is Snowmen in the Stars:

Both top and backing are completely done in flannel.  The gray blocks are 4" squares while the two long black strips are appliqued with snowmen and primitive stars.  In the gray blocks I was asked to stipple and occasionally add in a mitten.  With approval, I included a snowflake, plus when I did a mitten, I did a set of two.  The mittens did not exactly match but I thought a set was cute.  

The gray was quilted with a 50 weight Aurifil thread; I wanted a good thread since this was going to be appraised.  It's surprising how well the designs stood out; I was very pleased.  It was a little bit of a challenge but also a goal to make sure many of the snowflakes and mittens ended up on the lighter blocks, which would allow the designs to be seen.

These snowman are so cute.  The original plan was to use a gold colored thread and loosely meander through the black section, throwing in a star every now and then. And the original plan was to draw stars like we did growing up.   However, since I always stitch around appliqué anyway, we decided it might make a better scene to simple throw in a few clusters of stars and since the appliquéd stars were primitive, to stick with that design.  Wow!  These are hard to draw and make look good but I think I did ok.    

The appliques in this section were surrounded by a black Aurifil 50 weight thread but the stars were stitched out in a 40 weight Isacord trilobal polyester.  That helped the stars to "shine" a little more.  

The backing was a gray geometric flannel that worked well with the quilt.

I used matching top and bobbin threads so the designs and appliqué show up on the back.

The only thing I didn't like about this quilt was all the meandering.  It fit with the quilt but just lacks appeal to me.  I think I've been doing free motion too long and enjoy all the fancy designs.  However, it was fun adding three new designs to my repertoire:  the primitive star, the fancy snowflake and mittens!  I do a class called "Free Motion Motif of the Month" the first Tuesday of each month over at Blakeman Vacuum and Sewing and think I might include these three designs in January.  The mittens are easy but there is a little thinking and technique to the snowflake and primitive star.

Take a break from shopping, cooking and cleaning and join me Friday over at:  http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.