Asteria Wall Hanging, my January UFO finish
One day late, but I finished my UFO project from January yesterday. I basted, quilted and bound a generous size wall hanging over the last four days. It measures 42″ x 24″ and it is traditionally pieced using the pattern Asteria by Alderwood Studios. I’m so happy with the way it turned out!
Making a quilt top is my favorite part of the quilt making process. The finishing steps are not – I’m ready to start a new, shiny project by then! I took photos of the finishing process for this quilt and included any tips or links to tutorials when appropriate.
Basting
I’m a fan of using temporary spray adhesive to baste my quilts. You can read my detailed tutorial here. It goes quickly and it’s very effective!
Quilting
Even though I’m a confident free motion quilter, I still have a hard time deciding what to quilt. I use a whiteboard and then a practice quilt sandwich to test out ideas first. And still, I get nervous when I start quilting on the actual project.
I sectioned the quilting by mountain ranges, so each was different. Fortunately, everything flowed and my confidence grew as I went along.
Binding
Next came the binding and I opted for a flanged binding for two reasons. First, I love the way it accents the edge without dominating it; and second, I was running low on the blue binding fabric, so I saved yardage by working it as a flanged binding instead. You can see my tutorial on how to make flanged quilt binding here.
Quilt label
The last step was to add a quilt label. When I’m in a time crunch, this simple corner triangle is my method of choice.
- Cut a 6″ square of fabric.
- Fold it in half diagonally, wrong sides together, creating a triangle.
- With a permanent marker, add details on one side of the triangle keeping in mind the seam allowance along the raw edges. TIP: use a Frixion pen first. You can erase with an iron if needed.
- Before adding binding, place the triangle label in the corner of the back of the quilt.
- When you add the binding, it will encase the raw edges of the label.
- You can hand-stitch the folded edge down or leave it open.
I also stitched a personalized label to the bottom of this one. The labels are from Dutch Label Shop.
This wall hanging was made as a Christmas gift to my son and his girlfriend. They live in Portland, and I wanted a mountain scene that was modern, simple and the right size. The Asteria pattern turned out to be just right after adjusting the baby size. The original pattern has a mirror image of the mountains on the bottom which I left out.
If you missed the intro to my UFO plans for this year, you can read about it here and download my free UFO list as well. The short version is that I made a list of 12 UFO’s and I pick one of them to work on each month. I’m also following along with Connie at Free Motion By The River who is hosting a UFO challenge and picking (randomly) a number between 1 and 12 each month to designate which project to work on.
Next week (once I catch my breath), I’ll show you what UFO I’m working on in February. I believe it’s number 7. For now, I’m happy I finished the January project and looking forward to twelve finished UFO’s by the end of the year. I’m feeling optomistic!
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That’s beautiful! I love the colors and the creative quilting you chose
Great picture quilting, love it!
Beautiful quilt and congrats on your January finish!
Beautiful quilt! Thank you so much for sharing. Enjoy and celebrate your creativity!
Julie,
I love how your quilt looks with all the machine quilting! It’s a real beauty and a great gift!
Thanks for sharing all your tips and steps to completion. You’re always inspiring me!
Marge
Julie, this is absolutely stunning. Beautiful work. Thank you for sharing.
Kind regards
Maree
That is really beautiful and I love the quilting you did! It’s a perfect gift
This is gorgeous!!! I have a mountain themed quilt, and yours makes me want to get right to it!
BTW, I love looking at your posts and tutorials; whenever I see something on line with your name attached, I know it’s worth the look!
Thanks for sharing,
Gail Cunningham
Hi Julie, your Asteria, January UFO project is beautiful. Love how you used varying designs for quilting the mountains. Congratulations on your finish. I finished my January UFO quilt top Saturday evening, just in time for month end. Now on to February’s UFO.
Happy stitching,
Karie