Yellow Ohio Stars - Finished

It was great to receive so many comments and emails with helpful quilting suggestions for this Ohio Star quilt. As you can see, it's now finished. Sincere thanks for the input. Linda H. of Stitch Lines wrote to suggest a simple "piano key" border with stars in the corners and as soon as I read the words, I could see it on the quilt. Perfect! Linda teaches machine quilting and knows a thing or two about what works. I really appreciate your help, Linda!
My quandary with the border quilting was that I felt the centre was busy enough with the feathered wreaths and yet the density of the quilting needed to match, as otherwise the quilt would have wavy edges. The border is 3" wide, so I printed off some Ohio Stars that size and some a tad smaller from EQ7 to try them out.
I traced them onto Golden Threads paper using a FriXXion marker. You can sew right through this paper and it tears off easily afterwards. If any ink transfers to the thread when stitching, heat will make the FriXXion marks disappear.I used the even feed foot for the channel quilting, and marked the lines 1" apart using a FriXXion pen.
The binding is applied to the front of the quilt by machine, then flipped to the back and hand stitched in place. I work the corner mitres by stitching to within 1/4" of the corner and then sewing off the edge at a 45 degree angle. This diagonal seam keeps the mitres true.
The binding flips back easily against that seam.
The outside edges line up for a perfect mitre every time.
The ends of the binding are joined in a diagonal seam.
Over the years, I've discovered the simplest way to make this join without using any measuring, math, special tools, or gnashing of teeth! It is unbelievably easy to do.
A perfect fit! I will be demonstrating this method in the Free Motion Quilting workshop during Fibre Arts Festival as so many struggle with this join.
The back of the quilt is an extra wide soft flannelette printed with little yellow duckies.
As this quilt is for sale, I added a commercially printed satin label to the back. One end of the label is caught in the binding seam, and the other is hand stitched in place.
It will also have a hang tag featuring fibre content and washing instructions. The quilt measures 40" x 50", which makes it a generous crib size.
If you would like to make your own Ohio Star crib quilt, the pattern appears in the book Canadian Heritage Quilting. This quilt will be part of the show and sale of my work held on the Thursday of Fibre Arts Festival in October...unless of course, I sell it before then(!)