Here it is Friday afternoon on Christmas Eve and I was able to put the finishing touches on Stella by Starlight, my “kaleido-spinner” quilt, in time to take it outside for a few photos on the back deck before dusk. Stella by Starlight finished at 51½” x 71″.

As much as I enjoy sewing down binding, it has become quite a challenge since Coco the cat came into our lives in May. When I’m sitting in a chair with the quilt I’m binding draped around me, she thinks I have made a fort for her to play hide and seek in. Any little movement causes her to leap into action, pouncing wildly here and there, and I seriously worry she is going to do some damage to my quilt. I have to wait till she is napping so I can sneak in a little handwork:

Stella is bound in the same Cotton + Steel fabric (“Sprinkle”) that I used for the background. I love how the tiny white dots look like a sprinkling of stars in the night sky. That’s just one of several reasons why this quilt came to be named Stella by Starlight.

Here’s Stella from the back:

That strip of floral fabric is all I have left after making the kaleido-spinner and kaleidoscope blocks on the front. I also used it in my friend Miriam’s Junior Billie Bag.

See that little yellow hexagon in the lower right corner? That’s the label. Here’s a closer look:

The label is the same size and shape as the centers of the kaleido-spinner blocks on the front. Same fabric, too. (If you are interested in how I came up with the term “kaleido-spinner” to describe my blocks, you can check this post from October.)

Even though Stella contains only four true kaleidoscope blocks, I am including it in my series of kaleidoscope quilts. I believe this one is #11. The others are pictured in my Gallery under the subheadings Quilts and Table Runners/Wall Hangings.

I hope your next few days are full of fun, family, friends, and — of course! — fabric.