Jungle Star Quilt

It only took a little over five years, but I finished it! :)

You see, I pieced this quilt top for my 5yo daughter before she was born. We like to leave the baby's gender a surprise, so I was going for something bright and fun and gender-neutral.

After the top was finished, I was afraid it was too girly and made another one. That one isn't very neutral either. I was thinking "rubber ducks" when I made it, but all the blue made it a little more masculine and, of course, we had a girl.  I should have just stuck with this one.

I made a lot of sawtooth star blocks back then, too.

Lots and lots of star blocks.

The finished quilt is pretty big, so the back was pieced to make the leftover jungle fabric work (it isn't like I could buy more now!) I usually don't like to piece backs, but that is growing on me, too.

The I am pretty new to machine quilting, but I really love the texture on this one! I didn't know what to do with those large jungle print blocks, so I decided to quilt the entire thing using long, random, "organic" wavy lines.

I watched a video tutorial HERE that was very helpful.  When it was all washed it created such a lovely, crinkly texture. I tried to capture it with a picture, but this doesn't do it justice.

 So, I guess this quilt is a mixture of my old style and new style. I suppose that is what you get when you wait so long to finish something. I am really happy with the way it turned out, even if I did struggle with my sewing machine and all of the tension issues. I am just hoping that it comes back working better than ever because I would love to try something like this again.

I don't know what I am doing with this quilt now. I might sell it or give it away. I guess it depends. I still can't decide if it is gender-neutral or not.  Anyway, I am just glad to have it finished. :)