Joel Dewberry Avairy Stars Quilt

These photos don't do the quilt justice, its a lovely rich mix of purples and mint green with the light grey sashing.

The fabric is mostly Avairy 2 by Joel Dewberry. I got it from lilybellafabrics on etsy last year and the grey is Prima fabric from Spotlight.

Pattern is from Moda Bakeshop - The Charming Stars quilt

I'm really happy how it turned out, I've held onto this fabric for the last year and not really been sure of what to make with it. I love all the colours and the little squares with the birds on them. The quilt itself was really easy to sew, its all straight lines and came together really quickly.

The back is pieced out of all the leftover fabric, I had just enough to piece the year and a couple strips.

I quilted it with a free motion stippling design on my new machine.

Let me introduce my new baby; Janome 1600p-qc.

 

She's an absolute beauty, its a straight stitch only machine, no bells or whistles but it does a beautiful straight stitch and is so fast - 1600 stitches per minute! I had a bit of trouble with it skipping stitches when I free motion but it was the Guttermann thread I was using, once I switched to Mettler its been fine.

We picked up the desk for $10 at St Vinnies and inset the machine into it plus I gave it a good coat of paint. I've been having some shoulder and neck pain when sewing lately and as far as I can tell its been because the machines been too high plus its so much easier to quilt with a flat smooth bed.

 

To inset it we traced around the machine and used a jigsaw to cut out a hole then screwed together the little shelf for it to sit in. Didn't take very long and its the ultimate quilting table now!

 

And finally a couple kitten pics. What is it about cats and newly made quilts/clothes or even just clean fabric, I can never get them off mine!