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I finished my Sherbet Heart Quilt in time for Valentine’s Day snuggling, and we thoroughly enjoyed using it.  My favorite part of this quilt is the color.  It feels like being in a candy store!


I made this quilt using my Scrappy Heart Quilt Pattern (you can find the free tutorial and pattern here ) but this time I used all solids, including a peachy pink as the background.  I added pinks, purples, oranges and reds to make the hearts.  Many of these colors come from the Tula Pink solids collection, with additions from my stash.


I decided to quilt this myself in an allover pattern, and settled on a clam shell design.  This is my first effort at using an acrylic ruler while quilting on my Juki.  I made a lot of mistakes, and there are a lot of wonky clam shells in this quilt, but I also learned a lot and improved as I went on.  No doubt I’ll try this again in the future.


I pulled from my stash for the backing, and this Amy Butler print above won out.  I supplemented with an orange dot print along one side.  The colors of the backing complement the front perfectly.  I used more of the background print for the binding.


This quilt is fun to observe as the light changes through the day.  The subtle changes in color are beautiful.  It’s fun to revisit a design and see how it changes with different design decisions.  I’m enjoying sewing more with solids, and this quilt was a great way to do it!

Welcome to Week Two of the Lone Star Tree Skirt Sew Along!  If you’re just joining us, it’s not too late.  The pattern is available here and you can jump in anytime.  We’re going to finish our tree skirts well before Christmas!

Last week’s video covered sewing the fabrics into strips and then cutting them into strips of diamonds.  This week we will sew the strips into eight large diamonds to make a star so BE CAREFUL  in handling your fabric.

You have a lot of bias edges and don’t want to stretch them!
Once again, the video is in two parts.  In them you will find all my tips for marking, pinning, and sewing.  I love this step because the beauty of the lone star begins to emerge.  Here we go!

The first video covers marking and pinning your strips together.

https://youtu.be/gTHXps6lmVs The second video covers sewing the strips together into large diamonds.

https://youtu.be/aZxREu6EnfU There you have it, eight large diamonds!


When the diamonds are sewn together, play with them to see how they look if you flip them around.  I’m planning to put the red diamonds in the center of my star, which will look like this:


But if I wanted to flip it around, it would look like this:


You can see that the star looks very different when I switch them!  Last week I shared photos of an unfinished mod lone star as I deliberated on which way to sew it together.  I’d like to focus more on value in the future; I’m sure I will learn a lot!

We will meet back here next Monday for week three of the sew along.  Please share your progress with the hashtags #lonestartreeskirt and #hopefulhomemaker.  I’ll be watching for them!

Remember that all posts for this project can be found on the Lone Star Tree Skirt Sew Along page.

Have a great week, and happy sewing!
Jennifer

Last weekend I attended a fun new quilt show at Thanksgiving Point, called Garden of Quilts.  The quilt show was part of Riley Blake’s 10th Anniversary celebration.  It featured quilts from their collection as well as the Fat Quarter Shop collection, in addition to quilts submitted by individuals and a few other special exhibits.


The Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point are a gorgeous, 55 acre collection of gardens located in Lehi, Utah.  I have always loved walking through them.  Gardens and quilts:  can there be a more beautiful combination?


I submitted four quilts to the show and it was fun to wander until I found all of them.


My Prosper in Solids Quilt was in a pretty spot.


I wish I had a backdrop like this every time I photographed a quilt!


I found my Indigo Lone Star quilt hanging among some trees, and the moment I snapped this photo was perfect.  Do you see the dappled sunlight in a circle, highlighting the lighter ring of the star?  Perfect moment!


My Light quilt top is now a finished quilt, finished in time to submit to the show.  I was thrilled to find it with two of my dear friends who also worked on it.  I’ll share more of this quilt soon, as well as the fourth quilt I submitted.


In addition to hundreds of beautiful quilts and acres of lovely flowers and shrubs, The Ashton Gardens also feature a special Light of the World Garden.  The time I spent there was the most peaceful of all, among masterful statues of Jesus Christ, my Savior.


There were a few quilts that caught my eye, like this antique flag quilt in the Secret Garden, part of the private Ashton quilt collection.  The blue fabric faded, but the red is still vivid.






Watch for Garden of Quilts again next year.  I heard it will return, bigger and better, and I’m excited to see it.  I love being a part of the quilting community!