My Supernova - all finished! 🌟

I finished My Supernova quilt the other day and, OMG, I *LOVE* it! I am so pleased with how it turned out! Not only the patchwork part of it or the quilting part of it but the fact that I designed it all myself makes me so chuffed that it turned out so well. That might sound like I'm boasting or blowing my own trumpet - I am! I am just so, so pleased with it!

It finished at 76" square which was too big for Douglas to hold up. He tried but his arms don't stretch to 76" wide, apparently! LOL Anyway, I just laid it out on the livingroom floor to get the pics and here they are.

The front:

The back: (I should have flattened it a bit more at the right side!)

The label - designed by me too!

And its final hanging space. I didn't want to put it on a bed as it would hardly get seen and I think this definitely deserves to be seen. It's anchored to the bookcases that are in our top hall with clamps but I've changed those and it's now hanging with big paper clips and they work beautifully.

Now, as a Maths teacher in a previous life, I just had to do the sums to see how many pieces were in the quilt.

MY SUPERNOVA QUILT: designed by me in February, 2012.

TOP:
2½" squares - coloured fabrics - 808
2½" squares - white - 212
2½" HSTs (half-square triangles) - half white, half coloured - 424 so 848 pieces
TOTAL: 1868 pieces

BACK:
4½" squares - coloured fabrics - 80
magenta sheeting - approx 50" x 80".

BINDING:
black - approx 320" x 2½" wide

At the risk of repeating myself ... I *LOVE* it! 🌟

a bag, spex cases and a quilt

I played around with the leather bits I showed back in my January makes post. I wanted to make myself a bag so I sewed them on to a piece of calico to help keep them stable. As it's leather, I didn't need to turn under the edges - thankfully! I tried to keep the amount of overlapped leather to a maximum of 2 pieces as the sewing machine didn't much care for more than 2 layers.

I made 2 pieces the same size:

Then I sewed them together to make my bag. I am sooooo happy with the way it turned out.

I made myself some new spex cases. I don't need three - the first one I made was a bit smaller than I meant it to be so the spex were a really tight fit. It's not a problem as the spex I use for cross-stitching are smaller than my normal spex so the new case fits those perfectly!

I finished the Supernova top. I wasn't totally happy with it. Can you see why?

Here's an arrow pointing to the mistake! That star's legs are definitely not right! Woops!

I also wasn't happy with the way the white legs of the big stars just got cut off (see at Douglas's right slipper for an example of what I mean) so I decided I would finish those off. Then after doing that, I decided I needed another outer row to make the star "float" - it wouldn't just end at the outside of the quilt top. Clear as mud? I know!

This is what it looks like now.

I then pinned it to the bump and backing ready for quilting - a mammoth task on an ordinary sewing machine.

I've started the quilting but have to take it a little at a time as it's a big quilt to move around - 76" square. I'll get there and, when it's finally done, I am absolutely certain it'll be FAB-U-LOUS! (if I do say so myself! LOL)