Flowering Lone Star and Bursting Lone Stars Pattern Review and Giveaway

The fabulous Melissa at Sew Bittersweet Designs has come out with two new patterns.  The can be used separately as two tops or together as a front and a back.

The first is the Flowering Lone Star.  This pattern is for a single large star.  You use 4 fabrics for the main, middle, part of the star and 6 for the outer border around it.  There are some y seams, but with how large the pieces are I did not find them difficult at all.  I chose to create both these quilts with Christmas fabrics because I needed a good excuse to play with my expanding collection of Christmas material.  Seriously, I have 2 shelves of just Christmas!

When sewing the outer diamonds together, I found a trick I learned a while back of trimming off .25" of the end of one diamond helped me to be able to line them up with the offset easily.  I also found when sewing the diamonds that pinning where the points crossed first then the rest of the seam really improved my accuracy.  Melissa talks about how to make sure your point line up nicely in her pattern, too.  She has included so many photos to make sure you can see each step, which I find very helpful in a great pattern.

This was a great pattern that came together quickly.  I love how I can feature some great larger prints in the middle.  I took my time working on this top and it came together in just a few days, but I am sure I could make it in even less time now. (I am easily distracted when I sew in front of a window overlooking the pool ;)  )

The second pattern that Melissa wrote is actually the back for the one she created.  It is called Bursting Lone Stars.  I love it too much to use it as the back, though.

This pattern shows off 5 stars of 2 different sizes.  What is great that after creating the first quilt, you already have practice with nesting the y seams.  I was able to put this entire quilt together with cutting, sewing, and lots of pressing in just a couple days of sewing here and there.  

As usual, Melissa's instructions are clear and very detailed.  Just don't go mixing up the pages like I did between the two patterns or you will totally confuse yourself, haha.   Melissa takes a lot of time and uses many photos to explain nesting the y seams so don't worry if you do not have experience with it.  I would say that if it is our first try to give the Flowering Lone Star a try (lots of busyness going on if your point aren't exactly perfect ;) )   

Although one can be used for the back of the other, I think I am keeping them as two separate quilts.  I really like how they both turned out so much.  And bonus, I have started my Christmas sewing already! 

I would say that when creating these quilts, don't be afraid of a good dose of Best Press.  I think I had a perfume of Peaches n' Cream for a few days as I worked on these.  It helps to keep the bias parts of the fabric from stretching.  And if you get a little bit of a wavy issue (like I did on one small star), a spritz of 98% water and 2% Best Press and a hot iron can flatten things right out.

I have no idea what I will be backing these with yet, but I have already planned straight line quilting and a scrappy binding for the Flowering Lone Star and I am not quite sure yet for the Bursting Lone Stars. 

Thanks Melissa for writing up two more awesome patterns!   And for giving me the excuse to play with my Christmas fabrics ;) 

Now for the giveaway!  :)

One visitor to my blog will be selected randomly to win one pdf pattern of their choice of either the Flowering Lone Star or the Bursting Lone Stars.  All you have to do to win is to head over to Melissa's blog at Sew Bittersweet Designs and follow her there.  Then come back here and comment that you did.  

And for a bonus entry you can also head over and like Melissa's Facebook page.  Leave a second comment after you like her page.  

I will close the giveaway and select the winner on Friday, August 8 at 10 pm.  

Cindy's Tree Skirt

Yay, the last tree skirt for this year is done!  After I finished up the two tree skirts, Glamorous and Black and White, my sister decided that she wanted a tree skirt for Christmas.  I made my mom and other sister tree skirts last year so it was only fair that she got one, too.  Cindy is particular so I let her pick the fabrics that she wanted in her tree skirt.  From there we decided that she wanted circles on it, like I did my mom's, with reverse applique.  Cindy chose 12 fabrics so no fabric would be repeated in the wedges so I decided that no fabric should be repeated in the balls either.  So glad I joined in a few swaps of Christmas charms the past few years and have a ton of Christmas scraps in my stash.

The balls look great, they are just a lot of work when putting them on each and every wedge.  They each have either one, two, or three balls on each wedge.  They are all different sizes and all specially selected to match each wedge of the quilt perfectly.

This tree skirt is just a bit smaller than the others at 52" in diameter.  Cindy requested it be a bit smaller to fit her space better.  I did that by marking my template just 4 inches smaller so I cut the fabrics smaller to start with.

I think it looks perfect under her tree, it finishes the look.

My mom made her the angel that is on the tree.

I am done with tree skirts for the year, thank goodness.  Now to try and finish up the rest of the items on my to-do list that need to be done before Christmas.

Black and White Tree Skirt

After I finished the Glamorous Tree Skirt I jumped right into another tree skirt that I was asked to make.  The colors I was given to work with were black and white with a touch of silver, grey, gold, green, and red.  I was nervous that this skirt was going to turn out way too dark, but I don't think it did at all.

Using silver machine embroidery thread and doodled free motion snowflakes on the skirt.  Some were free hand and some I traced over the snowflakes on the fabrics.

It is backed with a great deep red that is perfect for the Christmas tree skirt.  This skirt has a 60" diameter so it is nice a large for those perfectly round trees.

I am on a tree skirt roll.  I have one more that I will be sharing soon!

Glamorous Tree Skirt

I have been doing a lot of sewing lately.  I was asked to make a few tree skirts and a few quilts this holiday season.  I tried to get a jump start on the projects in October since I was having surgery at the end of the month and knew that November was going to be a rough month for basting or moving or doing just about anything.

One of the items I was asked to make was a "glamorous" tree skirt.  She asked for rich colors with gold.  

I chose a selection of 6 fabrics, some from my stash and some new, that were the rich golden colors that she wanted.  I used the same pattern that I used for my mom's tree skirt last year that I made.  So glad that I knew exactly where that template was.

I quilted designs into each of the 12 sections before I assembled the skirt, which made it so much easier to maneuver through my machine, using gold thread to add to the sparkle. Once all the pieces were together I machine bound the skirt with a bis binding.

This tree skirt finished with a 60" diameter.

When I delivered the tree skirt she was so very happy.  She inspected each quilted section.  So happy to have one of many projects completed.