Celebration Quilt – the Last Round and Quilt Top Reveal

I had the center medallion created and the second round finished – it is time for the last round!  Before I got into picking the colors for the final round I had to make some more Kaleidoscopes.  I’m going to have to incorporate these into quilts more often – I love how much a fabric design can change with just a simple turn of a print!Most of the colors for the final round were already determined by the choices I made in the second round.  Of course – I rand out of some of the hand-dye I had used earlier (outside of the turquoise) and I found a similar piece that wasn’t exact but does work pretty nicely to finish the design out.  Anyway – my final ‘big’ decision was what fabric to use on the outer corners – the same black gold print used in the inner star (above) OR   The turquoise fabric?  I felt that they both looked good but the black print made me feel like it ended the quilt more than the turquoise did and since I don’t have any intentions of putting a border on it I decided to go with… The black print!  Now that I have all my fabrics picked out I pieced all of my blocks together.  Can you believe it?  It’s time to piece this top!  I just love this part! When I piece a top I try to piece my blocks into as many ‘chunks’ as possible.  I like to avoid, long, straight stitching as much as possible.  You can see above that I sewed all my blocks into 9 main chunks first.  Then into three strips. And finally it’s all together!  I’m planning to give this top to Barb on Monday (at the Lodi Valley Quilt Guild Meeting where Judy Martin is coming to talk *SQUEAL!****) to take home and quilt for me.  I can’t wait to see what she comes up with for it! So – that’s it for now – what do you think?  Would you have chosen differently in places?  Has this made you want to come to the Quilt Retreat?  If you’re already planning on coming – has it helped you figure out what to bring for fabric?   You can see more sample quilt tops and help choosing your fabric on Barb’s blog HERE.