Advent Banner - addendum to my November NewFO Post

In my last post I mentioned the big project I'd been working on was an Advent banner for our church.  There was no suitable spot in the house to get a photo so I waited until it had been hung and finally took the photo last Sunday.  Some of the colors are a bit washed out, especially the yellow beams, but my photo editing computer skills weren't up to fixing that issue without creating problems with other colors. 

This project had a finished size of a little over 88 inches x 44 inches. The completed banner looked a bit flat to my quilter's eye, so after adding a layer of lightweight batting and backing, there was the dilemma of how to best keep the layers together.  Since there are multiple layers of fabric fused one on top of another, especially in the center, machine quilting was not an option, not to mention a time-crunch factor.  In the end I decided to "tie" the piece using a variegated metallic thread, and hand stitching small "stars" somewhat randomly across the black background.  Then, the outer edges were folded to the back and machine stitched down since there was not enough of the black background fabric to make a regular binding.  All in all, as long as you don't peek at the back, it doesn't look too bad from a distance!

On the home front, December is flying by and I'm itching to start a new quilt, but since the Christmas decorations have still not made an appearance, I think hauling all the fabrics out of the closet is probably out of the question for a few weeks.  Still plugging along hand-quilting Checkered Past during the evenings and trying to get in a half hour or so of FMQ on the vintage triangles quilt every morning. 
Hope everyone is weathering the cold blast and snow storms we've had the past few days.  Stay warm, and happy quilting!