Star quilt done!

Yesterday I managed to cross the star quilt off the WIP list, and got it washed and dried. For the first time with this project I used cotton wadding rather then polyester - which meant a shrinkage of approx 5%. I was a touch nervous about what this would mean to the look of the quilt when it came out of the dryer - but you know what, I like the way it makes the FMQ look.
These are the before washing shots:

Before washing (and shrinkage)

And these are the after:

After washing

 The only real issue I can see is a slight bagginess to the cotton fabric in the less quilted areas - not an issue really, and especially if you use an all - over quilting design.

This quilt was pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50 weight thread, colour 2021. I've been using Aurifil for a while, originally just for quilting and using a cheaper thread for the piecing. The quality of Aurifil is so good though, that I'm just using Aurifil now - and I've noticed such a difference - it doesn't snap, doesn't knot and doesn't throw off a lot of lint. The difference, I guess, is just good quality - and I've come to the conclusion that when you're investing so much time and effort in to a project, you just can't afford to use poor components.  I'd be interested to try the thicker Aurifil coloured threads and see what this does to the appearance of my quilting.

It's snowing here today - you can probably tell by the horrible light in these photographs! Actually, blimey! It's really snowing...