Project Quilting 15.4: Hourglass

What a great challenge Project Quilting has put forth this week!  When I saw that it was "Hourglass", I smiled because it aligns with my pre-made goals for this challenge in two ways:

1. After going big last time, I challenged myself to go small this time and finish my entire project top in one sitting.
2. I wanted to use the new Tiny TV pattern by Quiet Play as my pattern and I had to wait patiently until Wednesday (release day!) to receive it.

But how to combine the TV and the hourglass?  I decided to go the nostalgia route and make the television test signal page that used to appear on the TV during the hours that nothing was broadcast.  I remember going downstairs in the morning and turning on the TV to see this, then dozing off again on the couch until the national anthem woke me up.

To incorporate the literal hourglass that the challenge calls for, I added a one inch border to each side of the pattern then modified it to create an hourglass behind the TV.  All four fabrics feature stars because you only saw the test pattern in the middle of the night!

I finished the top and the quilting in a single afternoon, then bound it the next morning.  The quilting is so simple I did it with my regular piecing foot; I outlined the inside and outside of the TV frame then played with echoing the hourglass shape in the background (with matching thread colors of course!).  It went so quickly I had time to visit our local broadcast museum and take way too many photos of it.

The back of the quilt is a fifth star fabric that was too busy to go on the front of the quilt.  I love how some the stars have sad looks on their faces, like they can't wait for the test signal to go away and the shows to start.  Shockingly, I couldn't find a small-scale yellow star print in my stash for the binding, but I do like this print that reminds me of abstract satellite dishes.

I'll close with a close-up of my piece in front of one of the original color cameras used to record the nightly news in my city.

I'm linking up my successful finishing with the Project Quilting challenge page.  Thanks for stopping by!