Cactus Star

This gorgeous wall hanging belongs to Bev. The pattern is called Cactus Star and it comes from the Mar/April 2013 edition of McCalls Quilting Magazine.  (You can find the foundation piecing template here.)  The original layout comes out at 60" x 60" and that was a little too big for Bev's house so she altered the layout to make it a more manageable 48" x 48".

The stars were quilted very similar to the original in the magazine. The background is where I had to get more creative to figure out how to handle all the different shapes.  A mix of lines and pebbles and curls and some open areas seemed to be the answer.

These open spaces in the corner had me stumped for the longest time.  I decided to take a cue from the border fabric that I new Bev loved.

I few chalk markings to give me some boundaries.

The result:

One of my all time favorite borders - the curved echo frames the piece nicely.

And a few more pictures, just because I can!