Interlocking Desert Stars

I love the colours of the American southwest. Rich teals and blues, complex oranges, brick reds, cactus greens.

Last winter we stayed at a wonderful rental house in northern Phoenix and I got some quilting in. One of the big quilt tops finished there was a design inspired by Sarah Craig's "Interlocking Stars" (see her post Interlocking Stars). Again I wanted something a bit bigger. I'd also just read an article on modern quilting with cropped designs. Redrafted the design to add a cropped star ... and thus was born "Interlocking Desert Stars".

A few photos of the quilting detail ...

Last year the London Modern Quilt Guild worked on colour - I was intrigued by how changing up the background colour can totally change the quilt. So I created a sister quilt, with a teal background. I got most of the top finished at the SWO Mod quilt retreat just after we got back from Phoenix. Lots of big blocks, so it goes together quickly!

I had some great feedback on the colours from the other quilters at the retreat. One suggested that a green I had was not quite right - overpowered the other fabrics. I thought it fit well so went with it. And you know, after I got the quilt done it just bothered me that that one fabric just popped out whenever I looked at the quilt. I let it sit a while but it just didn't work. So I took out all those pieces and replaced them with a calmer green. Which worked so much better! I'm so happy I did.

Then I had to muck my way through all the issues with my longarm, so it was December before I got to quilting these beauties.