The Big Top

I have my Hawaiian Star quilt top all pieced! I don't have any pictures of the whole to show you, but I'm hoping I'll have a place and opportunity to photograph soon. You can be sure I'll share it with you as soon as I do! To the right is a small detail of one of my better matched points, not that any of them are too bad. The old adage is that if you can't see the mistake from the back of a galloping horse, it's not a mistake to worry about. I'd rather a little higher standard...maybe a walking horse. But I don't have to worry about that here because all the points came out pretty good (albeit after some ripping and resewing in some cases).

After the sewing there is lots and lots of ironing to do. Pardon me, that is, pressing. We don't iron in quilting (press down and push), we just press with no pushing. Fabric can be easily distorted if you push it with an iron, especially if the steam is on. For a project like this, I don't mind pressing at all.

Ever wonder what the inside of a quilt looks like?
It looks quite a bit like the top, but with all the seams showing. There are lots of seams and for each one of them you need to decide which way they should go. Unlike in other sewing where you press seams open, in quilting, you generally press the seam to one side. It took me a while to accept that. As far as I can gather, it helps you to match seams more easily and relieves strain on the stitching (after quilting). You generally press the seam so that the bulkiest part doesn't have to fold back but it seems like there are lots of times you need to make exceptions. Or maybe I just don't know all the rules yet.

Since I don't have a picture of the whole thing to show you, and since you have patiently listened to all the drama and soul searching that went into it, I will give you a sneak peak of the vastly improved compass star fitted into the finished top:
Hoping to show you the big picture soon,

christina