Eyes on the Stars update

So a few weeks have passed since I started quilting Eyes on the Stars. My deadline was June 21 to get the quilt in as the entry to Vermont Quilt Festival. Not to jump ahead too much, but I made the deadline... sort of.
Here is what happened...
In-the-ditch with mono-filament thread went mostly OK. I tried to follow a path to minimize thread cuts. Given the complexity of the pattern this was a little complicated.

I marked the seams (Stattler calls it a boundary) using the machine head trying for as long a continuous pattern as possible. This boundary was converted to a stitching pattern. I needed to zoom in to make the points converge. Then once I told it to stitch (well actually, selected 'stitch' on the computer screen), then it stitched the path. I just guided with fingers on either side of the stitching head putting slight pressure on one side or the other to make sure the stitch was as close to the ditch as possible.
Since my seams are pressed open, there is no clear ditch. But the mono-filament made this almost invisible.

With all the 'in-the-ditch' quilting done it was time to select thread for the detail quilting. I had planned to change thread with every shape. Well you know what they say about plans. This didn't quite work out. The clock was ticking. It was already Wednesday - only 3 days left.
I started with all the stars using silver glitter thread. And then all the 'eyes' using light blue.

Then I switched to the larger areas - the dark blue and medium blue wedges. The patterns had been created earlier so it was a matter of marking out the boundary and placing the pattern - slight manipulation and then start quilting. This took time as there are 48 of each and that means a thread break between wedges. They had different colors of thread so I did all the navy and then all the medium blue. Lots of problems with thread breaks for no apparent reason. By now it was end of day Thursday. 
Friday I switch to the border as the pattern selected was quite dense and took a lot of time.
So long story longer - continued with as much quilting as possible until midnight Saturday. Then after a few hours sleep did the binding and made the deadline to get the quilt into the show. But, with about 40% less quilting than I had originally planned. Well, a yellow ribbon is nothing to sneeze at. Judges deducted points for having some dense quilting, and some without any. Here it is from the back and the final result.

There is always next year.....