Hopeful Homemaker

Lone Star Christmas Tree Skirt – A New Pattern

September 10, 2019 jennifer Christmas, Quilting and Sewing

Every year I picture a calm, relaxed holiday season with gifts wrapped early, festive decor up weeks in advance, beautiful meals for my family, and plenty of time for holiday themed sewing. Then life intervenes and I’m scrambling yet again. This year I’m ahead of schedule on at least one thing: my new lone star Christmas tree skirt , which is also the newest pattern in my Etsy shop .

There is a sew along for this pattern, which includes five weekly videos that offer tips and walk you through the steps of making your own tree skirt. Visit the Lone Star Tree Skirt Sew Along page for more information.

The tree skirt measures 48″ across, uses seven different fabrics in the star, finishes as an octagon, and is a lot of fun to make. It follows the same basic principles taught in my lone star block tutorial and is a relatively quick project because it’s just one quilt block.

The pattern includes a coloring sheet to plan your fabric placement. It also includes instructions for making the block into a tree skirt. I enjoyed mixing up some of my Christmas fabrics in mine. It features prints from Alison Glass, Alexander Henry, Victoria Findlay Wolfe and Amy Butler.

I quilted mine with an orange peel pattern in the small diamonds and straight lines in the background.

A lone star Christmas tree skirt will be a beautiful addition to your holiday decor, as well as a great gift.

The pattern is available now in my Etsy shop .

Download yours today , and get started on your holiday decor and gifts!

Supergiant Hunters Star Quilt {A New Pattern}

September 6, 2019 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

After making my Giant Hunter’s Star quilt , it occurred to me that I could make the block even bigger. What would it look like to have just one big hunter’s star for a quilt top? I started it immediately and set a timer to see how long it would take. Two hours later I had a Supergiant Hunters Star quilt top.

Just like the Giant Hunter’s Star , the Supergiant Hunter’s Star quilt requires only two cuts of fabric for the quilt top: two yards of a focal print and two yards of coordinating fabric make a 68″ square quilt. This pattern is perfect for those large, gorgeous prints that you can’t bear to cut up.

It’s also pretty great to start and finish a quilt top in less than two hours. That part makes it great for gifts.

I quilted mine like I did my Flight Quilt years ago, in a spiral starting at the center of the quilt. I don’t think I would do it again, though. All that fabric cut on the bias in the center didn’t love having me move it around in circle after circle. I created a bit of a ripple in the center of the quilt. Oops. I’ve since blocked the quilt and it’s a lot better, but be warned. The spiral quilting looks cool on this quilt but it came at a cost!

The pattern for the Supergiant Hunter’s Star quilt is available in my Etsy shop .

The pattern is technically called the Giant Hunter’s Star because I combined the two patterns into one, giving you instructions for two quilts at the price of one!
Two yards each of two coordinating fabrics and you can make either quilt.

I love all the “twos” in this project: two fabrics, two yards, two patterns, two hours… I might need to make another!

Giant Hunters Star Quilt {A New Pattern}

September 5, 2019 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

A few months ago I experimented with making a Giant Hunter’s Star quilt. My idea was to make the Hunter’s Star pattern work with a larger scale print.

I had two yards of a cheerful ocean-themed fabric covered in crabs, anchors, seaweed and shells. It needed to be used and I wanted a quick finish. I found a coordinating blue solid and started cutting. To my surprise, I had a finished quilt top in just over two hours!

Making four large blocks created another star in the very center of the quilt. With two yards of my feature fabric and two yards of a coordinating one I made a 64″ square lap quilt. Two more yards for backing and 5/8 yards for binding and I had a finished quilt!

I had fun quilting this. I gave myself permission to practice free motion quilting so I followed the outlines of the designs in the printed fabric, did an orange peel in all the stars, and organic straight lines in the blue background.

This seashell print is a fun one so I combined it with a blue stripe for a happy quilt back.

The other happy thing I did was write the Giant Hunter’s Star quilt pattern , which is now available in my Etsy shop .
It’s nice to have a pattern that can be made quickly, especially when you need to make a quilt to gift on short notice.

It gets even better, though: I increased the size again and made a one block Supergiant Hunter’s Star quilt , too. The fabric requirements are the same for both so you get two quilt patterns for the price of one.
Download yours today and get started!

Happy Sewing!
Jennifer