Getting back in the saddle

So, I knew at had been a while since I last posted, but I didn't realize it had been a year and a half! For shame! It's not that I haven't been thinking of posting or doing projects that warranted posting. These last many months have been very challenging on a personal and professional (if you can call it that) level. Without whining about it I would like to move on to a more productive place online just as I have moved on to a more productive place in person.

I've recently moved my longarm quilting machine into a new location! That one small move has generated so much creativity! Since moving it over there just over a month ago, I have completed quilting on two quilts that had been hanging around in my sewing studio for just too long. Below are some pics of the red, white and blue Streak of Lightning. I'm calling it Stars and Stripes Forever because it took so long to finish. 

Once I finished the quilting, I added Magic Binding. It's a few extra steps, but I think it looks especially sharp in this context.

 After that, my original plan was to stitch metallic stars inside all of the stars I had scattered among the meandering. It turns out that was more than I was willing to wrestle with on my regular machine, so there is just one shining star in the sky.

Overall I'm happy with how it came out. A friend had looked at it in my castoff UFO basket and declared that she thought it was really pretty so it is going to her as soon as I get a label on it.