Michael Miller Challenge Quilt Finish

It took me a while to get the inspiration I was looking for on my Michael Miller Challenge quilt. I had several ideas but none that I was really in love with. Then one day I was poking around on Pinterest for quilt and kept seeing stars that I loved - an idea was born. I wanted to do a quilt with several of my favorite stars from around the internet with lots of negative space. It finished up 60" by 76". This quilt is on my Q3FAL list (posted here).

Here's what I ended up with. I'm pretty in love with it. I picked out my stars and then was amazed when I looked in my new book "Vintage Quilt Revival" and there was a pattern with a bunch of negative space that used the same size and number of blocks that I wanted! This is the Sugar Snow quilt layout substituted with stars of my own choosing. I picked (largest first) Swoon, Star Surround, Green Mountain Star, Arizona Star, and the small six are from the Stars QAL.

This little star was one from the Stars QAL. She offered several different size options but I wanted 8" blocks (not a choice). I was surprised at how easy it was for me to do the math to shrink these down. They were pretty fun blocks to make.

I'm a big fan of minimal quilting - especially in straight lines. I was a little tempted to do something a bit more intense for this quilt because it was for a challenge but I liked staying true to myself better. I bound it in the same "dirt" (their name not mine) fabric that I used for the background and then the backing is a MM solid green. Can I just stop here and mention how much I love the feel of these MM fabrics? They are so soft! It was the first thing I noticed when I got my fabric.

My usual quilt holder was at work and I seriously couldn't wait to take pictures and share this one. So, I enlisted my oldest kids (age 8 and 7) to hold this up. They're obviously too short so I grabbed a pair of chairs and they did really well. I heard a lot of moans as I took the pictures from the behind the quilt and it cracked me up. I bought them off with a piece of candy and all was forgiven.

Here's a closeup of my favorite block - the swoon. I've had plans to make a swoon quilt ever since I saw the original several years ago but haven't gotten around to it yet. This was my first attempt at it and I'm pretty much in love. It wasn't any harder than I imagined and it looks so cool!

Well, there you have it. My kids all think I'm totally going to win first place but I'd really be surprised by that. I love this quilt and it was fun to try new stars and negative space - something I rarely, if ever, use. It was a fun challenge and either way I got a great quilt out of it! I'm linking this up over at Fabric Tuesday, Finish It Up Friday, and TGIFF