Stars and levi's and the sensation of being done

So each time I have moved in the last year I have determined that I would finish those UFO's that I created at the last home or the previous homes. Last August I made this quilt and posted picture of the unfinished top. I made it on a weekend away at my in-laws cabin. I used used-levi's, some plaid fabric I had in a bag and white fabric for the applique stars.
For a pattern..hm.. I just sort of made it up as I went along. I had the fabric, I created an idea and went with it. I am sure that I got some inspiration somewhere for the appliqued stars and put it in the recesses of my brain. It took me forever to finish this quilt because of those stars. I kept wanting to get it done, but I was either out of white fabric, didn't want to take the time to find the right star shape, or didn't want to take the time that it takes to stitch on the applique.Well, I sort of cheated, but not really. I didn't want to do a blanket stitch or a zigzag stitch on the edge of the stars. I decided just to do a basic outline in the middle of the star and leave the edges exposed. Raw edge applique is pretty common these days and I really think that it will add character to the quilt as the edges fray.
Now for the biggest part of this quilt...it is the biggest quilt that I have quilted on my own machine. I was terrified!!!! Not only was it big, but levi is incredibly heavy and very hard to handle because of the weight. I broke a few needles, got mad at the thread when the quilt would slip and the thread would brake. But, it got done. It is not the most perfect quilting job by any means, but I think for a first time on such a large project it is pretty decent. I knew that it would take a while because of the size, bulk and heaviness, but it took me almost 5-6 hours to quilt it. It was worth it to save money from having a longarm quilter do it, but it is time consuming.

So, I had to post of picture of me actually quilting it. It is a big moment in my quilting experiences and thus needed to have a picture moment. (I think that Russ thought I was weird when I asked him to take a picture.)
Here is a close up of some of the stars and how I quilted around them.
After starting I realized that I probably would have liked it a little better if the thread color had been a little bit darker. I can't really see too much of the quilting on the front unless I look close, so I took a picture of the back to show you what it looks like. Because of the fluffiness of the fleece the pattern shows up well.For the binding I decided to use some levi fabric. I cut up a pair of my brothers old pants and used the back of the pant legs. I thought that for sure it would not be enough fabric, but wow!!! men's levi's have A LOT of fabric. I probably made enough binding for two of these quilts and I only cut 6 strips out of the pants. (And my brother is not terribly tall either). The biggest problem with sewing on the binding was the thickness of the backing.
I decided that I wanted to have fleece on the back side of this quilt. I thought that after I pull it down as a July decoration in my family room I would put it as a quilt that could be used to watch a movie. So, I wanted something soft and warm. Little did I know that the fleece would be terribly thick to sew a binding onto. Between the weight of the levi and the thickness of the fleece, it was all I could do to keep the quilt in my hands as I worked. My hands were totally cramped up when I was finished sewing on the binding.

Well, hope that you enjoyed.