By the Light of the Moon, finished!

I have another finish....   One that I can't even put up on my wall yet because it is for ....

CHRISTMAS!

I finished the McKenna Ryan By the Light of the Moon kit.  Yeah!  A big relief because I was really wondering if I would mess it all up in the end.

The center scene I did with Mrs. Furui and Mrs. Ochiai.  I took the kit home and put on the borders and ribbon by myself.

And then to the quilting...  Take the plunge Tanya.

Well, the stitching wasn't very even but blurps weren't that visible with that monofiliment thread.  I had to keep the top thread very loose though to discourage the bobbin thread from popping up on the top.  A lot of wiggling and backtracking.

What a load off my mind when the quilting was done!

Next to the embellishments.

McKenna offered an embellishment kit for about $35 dollars (and I'd have to pay for shipping remember).  For beads and baubles?  Surely I can find beads to use in Japan.

Actually I could find beads in my own drawers.

I found some cheapy acrylic sparkle "beads" that I'd bought years ago for some project, I don't remember what.  And I did splurge and buy the tiny Swarovski chips when I found them on sale at a craft shop.  At full price, NO WAY!  The McKenna kit included Swarovski beads so I realized why the kit was so expensive.  Honestly speaking, there really is a difference in the sparkle...but a couple go a long way and the eye is fooled into thinking the cheap beads are twinkling more than they really are.  I attached the sparkle beads with hot bond.
 

Also in my drawers I found a few star charms that I had planned to use for the Tessellating Cats quilt a couple years ago. (I used bells)  The birds are carrying star charms to the tree tops.

The different trees in the scene I decorated with left over seed beads (sew on from the back) or more Swarovski and acrylic beads.

And this little bird is carrying...  An old pearl earring that I lost the pair to years ago...  adorned with a lone circle bead from a broken necklace.  You can see that I am adaptable.

I absolutely love the way the tapestry sparkles and glitters as the light catches it.  The gold star charms and even the gold fabric star that the bear is holding (Mrs. Furui found a SCRAP of gold in a sample stack) twinkle when you walk past.  

This quilt will be put aside until Mrs. Furui and Mrs. Ochiai finish their quilts and then they will be lent to the children's hospital for this year's wall decoration at Christmas.  NEXT year we'll be able to call the tapestries our own.  (Lending out the tapestries was the only way the three of us could justify spending so much money for our patchwork hobby...  We do make such strange rules for ourselves, don't we.)

I had such fun making this quilt and though it is identical to the quilts that other McKenna fans have made, I was thrilled using the beautiful fabrics and learning new techniques.

I'd say this was a success!