Category: Projects

While temperatures remain around 100 degrees here, summer is winding down.  Next week my children go back to school, and this morning we sent our son off to Mexico on a two year mission.  I feel so many emotions but I’m trying to jump on the joy train.  Life is good and we are blessed!  And today I’m sharing a new quilt top.  I’m calling it “Summer Afternoon Lone Star”.

This top began in a Lone Star tree skirt class I taught in 2022, which I sewed into an octagon and set aside.  I decided to finish the top by taking an approach similar to my Oxymoron quilt top, so I started auditioning fabrics for borders.

You see, I tend to pause a project and store it with the fabric pull I made for the entire quilt.  Tired of the pile, I wanted to finish it up.  Surprisingly, only one of the fabrics I’d set aside ended up in the quilt.  It’s that skinny 1 inch border in a lovely blue.  I had barely enough to make it work.

The second blue border is another Anna Maria Horner print, actually a smaller version of the large print I used for the scallop applique in Oxymoron.  It was an unplanned choice, and made the cut because I liked the blue.  It’s followed by a bright orange vintage print with amazing texture.  I bought it at a vintage market earlier in the year, and it’s almost neon orange – so much brighter than in the photos.

I love Nathalie Lete’s green print used on the last wide border.  Saved for something special, I finally took a deep breath and just cut it.  Better to use than to store, right?  Another thing I’m working on!

It’s been a while since I hung a quilt top from the cherry tree.  Our dear old tree has had a rough summer.  I’ll share more later, but it’s been hard on my heart.  I left the summer afternoon lone star hanging while I wandered around our vegetable garden to see what’s growing.  At one point I turned and noticed the quilt top from the back. Sweetly pastel, I snapped a photo.

 

Using that last large border makes my summer afternoon lone star a larger quilt than usual – a little over 80″ square.  Now to piece a backing!  I do love how colorful it is – a pretty summer palette.  No more fabric pile for this one!  I’m excited to get it quilted.

I always want to create something with red, white and blue during summer.  While organizing a closet recently I found these red, white and blue orphan blocks.  I saved them for a scrap “leftovers” quilt that I forgot all about.  I put them up on the design wall to look at them and think.  What additional blocks should I make?  How should I fill in space?  There is a LOT of white here – evidence I made them years ago.  What would you do with them?

The block below is a leftover from my Anthem quilt.  Anthem is my first quilt pattern.  I love it, and I also love it’s sister version, Peppermint, which is most popular (instructions for both are included in the pattern).  Right now I’m working on an updated Anthem that is similar to Peppermint.  It’s fun to see a block from so long ago.

I also found this lone star block.  It’s crazy to think that this little block started my journey with lone stars and pattern writing.  My tutorial is used by many people and I’m grateful to contribute to the online quilting community with it.  I cherish this little block.  It definitely deserves a spot in a quilt!

Below is another fun lone star block.  I remember this as the first time I swapped out diamonds and stood the star on a tip.  I just finished a very personal quilt with a lone star on point like this.  I’m grateful for where that exploration has led.

I had also forgotten about my Anchor quilt block tutorial.  That was a fun block to design!

All these blocks were test blocks or extras, or parts of a quilt pattern I never finished.  I can’t remember the designer or the quilt name for the other two large blocks.  I felt uninspired and quit making them after the first two.  But they will be useful in a leftovers quilt.  And that little boat block was a long ago experiment.  I have a vintage quilt top from that block which needs quilting.

As I asked earlier, what would you do to pull these together and create magic?  I will definitely add more color!  Lots more red, white and blue needed here.

Life is really crazy right now and I don’t know how much time I’ll have to play.  I hope I don’t have to take them down and put them back away because I like these red, white and blue orphan blocks.  I hope to use them well!

When I posted last month about my finished Hunt Quilt, I suddenly remembered that my Rin Quilt was also finished.  Rin is another pattern from Carolyn Friedlander, also featuring circles.  And like my Hunt quilt, I stitched some of these blocks at the beach.

Even as I worked on the applique, I felt like the colors and aesthetic of this quilt might interest my mom.  So last September, just before my daughter’s wedding, I had it quilted.  I was able to bind it before my parents came to town, and gift it to my mom for her birthday.

I chose a simple edge to edge design for the quilting.  Another navy blue for the binding.  And I felt super lucky to snap a couple of photos before I had to wrap it up.

These blocks were awfully fun to stitch, with all their scallops.  For the back I picked a quatrefoil design in navy blue.  It complements the quilt nicely, I believe.

It’s fun to see these photos and remember the fabrics I used.  I loved working with them, and most of them were also designed by Carolyn.  I wonder what fabrics I would choose today, if I were to re-make this quilt.  My tastes have evolved, and I started this Rin quilt in 2017.  I’m sure it would be different!  Regardless, it’s lovely and I’m thrilled to have completed it.