Thank you Debbie, Renata and Rita. Glad you like the quilt.

Okay, here's my secret: I have been professionally longarm quilting for almost 9 years. After 6 years, my neck and back (and feet too!) were not so happy with the physical effort longarming takes. About 3 years ago, I added an Intelliquilter Robotic System to my A1 Longarm. I still do freehand quilting, and love to combine my freehand with digital quilting. However, for Stars Around the World, I challenged myself to only use digital quilting. Even the SID is done with the robotic assist! I will say that I don't think this was any faster at all... however, it is less strenuous to let the computer drive the longarm around the quilt, than for me to do it... a longarm head weighs about 45 lbs, and while they should move easily across the quilt, it is still a lot of work.

So, the curlycue designs in the triangles, squares and rectangles and the feathers with the pearl centers were done by editing, sizing, rotating, scaling, and placing digital designs each individually in each area, then having the IQ stitch them out. The rows of pearls were created by the IQ from geometric shapes, then I placed multiple runs of pearls about 12" long, each run set one at a time, in the areas I wanted them, and let IQ stitch them out. In the dark triangles, I did Continous Curves, again by placing the arcs in sequence and having IQ stitch them for me. The Stitch in the Ditch (SID) in the border areas was also placed first, then stitched by the IQ. I used Quilters Dream Batting for the lovely loft, and So Fine Thread.

Now, all that said, any quilter can do pearls!! They are really nothing but a circle, and a half circle stitched on top of the first circle, then again and again, to create a continuous line of circles. It really is only a matter of Practice, Practice, Practice! Domestic machine or longarm, you can do this!!

Renata, as for my 'process', I knew I wanted some curls type of quilting design to soften the hard edges of the quilt design. I planned the quilt setting so that I had large white space for my quilting. From experience, I knew that the center square, 4 diamonds, and outer areas would look great with a coordinated quilting design... I just had to audition a whole bunch to find the ones that worked! I probably spent the better part of a week trying out different quilting plans on the computer screen, before taking one stitch! Then, to accentuate the spin of the stars, I did the swag shaped feathers in the white area of the stars like a pinwheel. When I saw that the spines had pearls in there, I then knew that I wanted pearls in the border area to complement that. The Continuous Curves is one of my go-to designs for sawtooth triangles. They always look great!

I could have done feathered wreathes and feathered triangles and that would have been pretty too. I also thought about putting an embroidery in the middle with the SOTTT info... but that never came together. There are always so many ways to quilt a quilt... the hardest part is deciding!!

My best advice is just keep making quilts, and keep quilting them! You skills will improve as you practice. There are lots of great DVD's for freemotion quilting available, for both the longarm and the domestic machine, not to mention books and online videos etc. Buy the DVD's, take classes on machine quilting, invest in yourself and your quilting, and you will learn and improve your skills. You can do it!

Michelle,
your quilt is beyond beautiful! The way you juxtaposed the creams and other colors makes the quilt jump out and grab you! The quilting is delicious, and I too, would love to know more about how you got the perfect circles in the border. May I also ask what you your process was for pulling together the beautiful quilting design you got for this beginner who wants to learn : :
Renata

Debbie I love your quilt and it is totally unique too! Michelle, your quilt pattern is lovely and as for that quilting, beautiful. How did you get all those perfect circles in the border? Amazing.

Wonderful guest room bed covering. In my mind, I was imagining it as a bed quilt but did not want to assume. Thanks! Renata

Renata wrote:

The quilt is quite large, 80" x 100", since it grew as it went along. Once I decided to add the row of applique blocks, that added another 20" unexpected inches. It really needed more than just the Mountain Top blocks though. It was definitely a quilt without a true plan, but it was fun to do. I plan to use it in my guest room. I have a couple of rows of Mountain Top blocks left-over and I'm thinking of making a pillow topper instead of shams. Had I used those other rows of blocks, it would have been way too long. I had to stop somewhere!

Michelle, your quilt is beautiful! Congratulations on getting it finished and pics off to Carol.

I'm still having a problem getting a really good picture. I want to take it outdoors and the wind keeps playing with it. I haven't finished the label either, but I'm close.

I finally sent my pictures off to Carol this morning!! I am so excited that we will have a book of all the fabulous quilts from our exchanges!

Here's "Stars Around the World"





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Debbie,
How you combined the two designs is so novel and interesting. How do you plan to use this quilt? What size is it? Congratulations on a job well-done! I really like it!
Renata

Debbie, that is so cool! Love how you added the lovely applique!! Good job getting it done!

I finally finished by quilt! I combined two of Edyta's patterns to get where I thought it needed to be. I started out with the Mountain Top design, decided it needed more, so I made three applique blocks from Edyta's Sweet Sixteen pattern.

I need a link to review the instructions for submiting the file to Carol and what all is suppose to be included. I don't know why I didn't bookmark it. Lois

Last day for all the quilting to be complete. The pressure is on. Time for some good music in the background and a big bone to keep the dog occupied. I'm almost there. Clara

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and so pleased you all liked my "back side" I just wanted to make sure every HST got into the quilt they were all so precious. Dorothy

Wonderful, Dorothy!