Every so often, an image springs fully formed into my head and comes together very quickly. That is what I experienced with this piece which I call “Behold the Star.” When I saw my niece Shelby sing a solo on this song during the 95th Spelman-Morehouse Christmas Carol Concert, I knew immediately that I wanted to capture that moment in an art quilt. I sketched the idea the next day, searched through my fabric stash and got to work. Three days later, I had the quilt top pieced together and was preparing it for quilting. As those familiar with my work know, I typically hand quilt my pieces using a simple seed or rice stitch in the same color as the background. But a friend saw the piece when it was pinned together and reacted so positively to the “sparkle” of the pins on the dark background, that I decided to try and replicate the effect using a star stitch in a contrasting color. I really like the effect.