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.  

Orange Peel QAL

So over at Quilty Habit there is a fun Orange Peel quilt along going on.  Sometimes it is hard to resist jumping into a fun new project even through there are so many other projects with deadlines stacking up.  Jess made it look so fun so here I am making an orange peel quilt.  I made a rule for myself, though.  I HAVE to use my scraps for this project.  My scrap stash is getting a bit out of hand.

The last scrap bag I loaded up had a great pile of matchy prints from my lqs.  They tend to make a lot of kits so I think they came from one of them.  I grabbed the stack and started my project.  I have also put myself on a fabric bin diet (hi I'm Carolyn and it has been 1 month since I raided the scrap bin at my lqs).

I am making more of the orange peels as I go along and add to my little quilt.  I am doing the stitch and flip interfacing method.  Also, I am adding some fun stitching to a few of the peels as I go along.  

This is my scrappy quilt so far.  The blocks are 5 inch squares.  Some are pieced and I like the look they add to the quilt.  They won't all have peels on them.  I am just going by feel and what I think looks good.  It is a whatever goes quilt. 

I am linking up to the half way post Jess has up at Quilty Habit.

Sewvivor - Sweet Boater Chick

Some of you may have heard of the contest of Sewvivor that has happened over the past couple of years over at Family Ever After.  Well this year it is Quilters Edition!!

I have decided to enter into the contest and for my audition I have decided to enter my Flight of the Seagulls quilt.  (It was between this one and my Modern Mini, hexagon quilt)  I looked through my photos of different quilts and this one is still one of my top favorites.  I love how the geese (seagulls) move across the quilt in an all over way.  And how they are all different sizes.

I designed this quilt.  Piece by piece I watched it grow on my design wall.  The background is not just a single piece of fabric, it has been chopped up and sewn back together to give it a different texture.

 The quilt is quilted in rolling waves.  Even the back has pinwheels of flying geese.  Here is my original post for my Flight of the Seagulls quilt.

I hope I make it as a contestant for Sewvivor!  I can't wait to see all the quilty goodness that comes from the entries!

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Megan's Wedding Quilt

Ok so maybe I should call it Megan and Justin's quilt, but you know it was really for her ;)

I have been a busy sewing bee lately.  Last week I completed 2 tops.  I think this summer I have created more tops and finished off more quilts then I even realized.

So Megan is one of my best friends and 2+ weeks ago she married the man of her dreams, Justin.  Megan and I met in college and for as long as I have know her, her favorite color has been green.  She even has a green graphing calculator!  So I knew that green would be the main color of her quilt  Justin's favorite colors are black and gray.  I can totally work with that, too.

Because things at my house have been so hectic and crazy lately I was not totally sure I would be making it to the wedding, but as it grew closer I knew I had to be there, quilt in hand.  SO off I went to my stash to find the perfect fabrics for the quilt.  I pulled 6 greens with different textures and polka-dots.  I then pulled 3 grays with black and white in them from the coma line by Moda (perfect since she is a teacher!).

I created this mixed up all over pattern just for their quilt and I think I need to write it out because it was so quick and so easy and I put it together, quilting and all, in just 3 days!  I was even spray basting it at 11:30 pm on my deck!

I did straight line quilting on the quilt, kinda following some of the seams on on the quilt.  The binding is Quilters Linen by Robert Kaufman, I love the non-solid solid look of it.  The backing is of of my favorite go to leaf prints, it just worked perfectly with the green on the front and the gray binding.  

In the end it measures 54" x 54".  I used Pellon 100% cotton Natures Touch batting.

Megan and Justin said they were very happy with their quilt.  I think that it will be perfect when they go to concerts and the sit on the grass or for snuggling on the couch. :)

Happy wedding to Megan and Justin!

June Project Quilting - Out to Sea Quilt

Yay, I finished up my June off season Project Quilting Challenge.

I went from this panel and box of scraps, (and a little bit of stash)

to this mess on my wall.

And from there to a completed top.  And now, a totally finished quilt! 

I did some wavy quilting down the length of the quilt because I felt it fit the Out to Sea theme I was going for.

The back is pieced with navy Kona and a fun nautical flag print that looks like they are blowing in the wind.

The binding is a red stripe with little red anchors dotted through it.

This quilt was quick and fun to make.  I really enjoyed digging through my box of nautical scraps to find the right pieces for each spot.

Out to Sea Baby quilt

34" x 40"

Multiple lines of 100% cotton fabric

Pellon cotton batting

June Project Quilting

It is off season for Project Quilting and this month is the Panel It challenge.  All you have to do it take a panel and make a cool quilt or quilted item out if it and link up by June 30th.  

Amazingly, I have more panels than I would have thought when I pulled them all together.  I decided on the fun nautical panel that I realized I had 2 of in 2 different spots (at least I know I liked if if I bought it twice).  I pulled my nautical scrap bin and a couple pieces from my stash and went to town playing.

This was totally done free form, with a log cabin inspired frame around the panel sections.  It was fun to just play around with the bin of scraps that really doesn't look like I pulled from it at all even though almost the entire top was pieced from it.  I am kinda amazing at the amount of nautical inspired scraps I have, but it probably has something to do with living on the shore.    

Now off to piece the back and get quilting, the end of the month is coming quickly. 

Stash Bee

This year I joined Stash Bee, an online bee of quilters from all over the world.  There are 12 different hives of 11 great quilters.  I am in hive 4 and this is my month.  I asked for circle blocks from my bee mates.  (My month post)

 I chose a low volume background and bright fun colors for the circles.

I love reverse applique, which is how I created my blocks I showed as examples.

I can't wait to see the blocks my hive mates create!