Two Friday finishes - Wedding Stars and HST Doll Quilt

Lots of photos today as I have two finishes to share with you; well, one complete finish and one finished top.  I could have posted Wedding Stars last Friday but I didn't feel I should show off the pics until I had delivered the quilt to the happy couple, which didn't happen till Saturday.

So here it is, longarm quilted by my friend, Chris (bride's mother) in a design which incorporates hearts and swirls: very subtle, and we chose a soft gold thread which blends beautifully across all the colours.



















The backing is a blue check flannel so it is soft and cuddly but, most important, it is sufficiently masculine to appeal to the groom!

This photo shows the pieced border; I do love a pieced border!

Quilts stats: Finished quilt measures 80" x 100"  (big enough for two to wrap up in on the sofa).
                    Nine patches made with 2" cut squares, so finishing at 4 1/2"
                    Hourglass blocks and plain squares are 5" unfinished

And here's my finished quilt top from Wednesday: it measures 33" square.

I chain pieced the HSTs together in rows so the little twists of thread in between kept the pieces in the right order.

I know you can use this technique when joining rows of blocks together but I always find it rather unwieldy for big blocks and big quilts.  On this smaller scale it worked perfectly.  

Here are the rows all ready to be joined.

I did change my mind about the pinwheel in the centre of the star; I felt it needed a stronger statement so I used more HSTs in the blue check fabric to make the star stand out more clearly.

Now to quilt it...  Tempted to hand quilt but there are a LOT of seams.  I think it might be machine quilting in the ditch.  Any thoughts?

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish it up Friday.