Re-finished

Hi all! How is everyone on this summer weekend?  I have some sore muscles.  Our son and daughter-in-law just bought their first house and we have been helping them clean it (and, oh, baby, did the former owners leave it in terrible condition!) and paint, do some landscaping, install new appliances, etc.  There's a reason why younger people do most of this.  We're exhausted!

But not too exhausted to sew!  This week, I finished the Terrestrial Star quilt for a second time. Yes, I took apart a perfectly good finished quilt top and redid some of it when there was nothing even wrong with it.  Sometimes a quilt just tells you that you're not finished with it and refuses to be quilted up until you do something else.  Here is the new version:

By the dawn's early light!

Just for comparison purposes, here is the older version:

Better picture of the colors, at least!

I think the new one is a real improvement!  As you can see, there were several changes.  First, I changed the corners of the center star and replaced them with the light blue fabric.  I love the fabric that I removed, but it just didn't really work.  I like the quilt with the blue much better.  It looks more like a star with a sawtooth border now.  Plus I can use that lovely fabric for something else.  Something small, but something.

The big change was the borders, of course.  I used all of the leftover brown strings I could find to string-piece 4-1/2 inch borders on paper.

It was super-easy, if a little time consuming, and I think it turned out great.  The best part is that the pile of brown strings went from this:

to this:

Imagine how happy I am about this.  And how tired I am of brown strings!

This new version is just barely a rectangle, because I didn't want it to be square, and measures about 70 by 75.  The top and bottom borders are slightly wider than the sides, which I like for some reason. 

Anyway, I like this version much better! I think it's more visually interesting and doesn't look quite so "vanilla."  I know there was nothing wrong with the first version, but I wasn't happy with it and now I am. So now I think it's ready for the longarmer, which is always cause for celebration!

Hope you all have something to celebrate this weekend, even if it's just some good weather.  Remember that winter is always coming, so we have to enjoy the warmth while we can!

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday. Come on over and join in!