Hello Friends, I am happy to share with you my Solar Star runner project today because it is rather warm where I am. Solar Star is featured in Annie’s newly released quilt book, Dazzling Diamond Quilts. The book is available for purchase from Annie’s online catalog.
[image source: Annie’s]
Solar Star uses diamond patches in its center feather star block. You will notice there is only one block — that is intentional! Solar Star is designed for those who want to try out diamond piecing technique, but don’t necessarily want to commit to a full quilt project. So, trying out the technique with just constructing one block seems the best way to finish up a project without too much duress! :) Of course, the project would make a quick to complete project for the advanced quilter as well!
Just add border strips to the sides of the block to length the runner – and voila, you will have yourself a striking runner!
You probably noticed the Benartex Palm Springs fabrics used are the same fabrics used in Tulip Trail (quilt picture is shown below – do scroll down – in other Palm Springs related images). Click here to view the entire fabric range. Solar Star uses the warmer swatches of the collection, while Tulip Trail uses the cooler colorway.
Now about the quilting… quilting is done using Aurifil Mako 50 Cotton thread over Fairfield‘s American Spirit Classic cotton batting. You can see I have quilted around the feather star to look like a large “Dahlia”, with pebbles and swirls in the negative areas.
Aurifil Mako 50 Cotton threads are perfect for quilting the small pebbles without any thread buildup.
Click here to view examples for pebble power.
Click here to read about my Thread Talk post on pebbles.
Here you see the quilting on the other parts of the runner. I quilted on the fabric print. See more examples here.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed Solar Star, and more importantly your summer season!
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Other projects made/designed with Benartex’s Palm Spring fabrics:
1. Tulip Trail (The Quilter, April/May 2014)
2. Cozy Sweater (Benartex Free to Use Pattern)
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My 2014 lineup to date —
Editorial features:
Annie’s Row Quilt Book (March 2014): Stardom
Annie’s Dazzling Diamond Quilts Book (May 2014): Solar Star
Fons & Porter’s Easy Quilts (Summer 2014): Teething Rings
Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting (January/February 2014): Hurry Home
Generation Q (May/June 2014): Hole in the Wall
McCall’s Quilting (January/February 2014): Spiral Squared
McCall’s Quilting (July/August 2014): Bird Watching
Popular Patchwork, UK (April 2014): Mending Fences
Quilt Trends (Winter 2014): Enchanted Forest
Quilt Trends (Winter 2014): Urban Stars
Quilter’s World (Spring 2014): Urban Oasis
Quilter’s World (Summer 2014): Starry Repetitions
The Quilter (December 2013/January 2014): Farm Crossing
The Quilter (December 2013/January 2014): Boxing Day
The Quilter (April/May 2014): All Squared Up
The Quilter (April/May 2014): Tulip Trail
The Quilter (June/July 2014): Garden View
Free to use designs:
January: Midori’s Place using Gramercy by Benartex
January: View on Lexington using Gramercy by Benartex
January: Everything’s Coming Up Rosey using English Rosey by Benartex
February: Verde (Quilt) by Quilting Treasures
February: Verde (Banner/Runner) by Quilting Treasures
March: Hot Topic by Quilting Treasures
March: Poseidon’s Adventure using Neptune’s Dream by Benartex
March: My Cozy Sweater using Palm Springs by Benartex
March: Wild Kingdom using Sew Rousseau by Benartex
April: Fun with Frosty (Quilt & Runner) by Quilting Treasures
April: The First Thanksgiving (Quilt & Runner & Placemat) by Quilting Treasures
May: Party Poppers using Paintbox/Shadows by Benartex
May: Sprinkled Sweets using Paintbox/Shadows by Benartex
May: Dino Craze using 10,000 B.C. by Benartex
Fun pattern. I like the star, but I also like the creative way that you turned it into a Dahlia! The negative quilting is quite effective and very pretty.
Another beautiful quilt Wendy — and so easy to put together (I’m all about that!!) As always, I love your quilting too…. thanks for sharing and Congrats on being published in the Annie’s Book.
Beautiful! I love the bright, sunny colors!
Sent from my iPad
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It’s beautiful, Wendy…..especially the quilting…the rounded quilting imitating a dahlia and the round pebbles are a nice counterpoint to the diamond and triangles in the star. Lovely…just lovely, as usual. Thanks so much for sharing and for the inspiration.
It reminds me of the diamonds found in your “Christmas Cheer” table topper that was in “Quilter’s World” mag. Autumn 2013 issue. Love that ‘feel’! and the quilting is such fun!!!! The “dahlia” stitching really adds a spark/2nd stitching dimension that grabs the viewer!!! Hugs…………………………………….SSAB
WOW! Seriously inspiring!! Please do stop by and link this up on June 10th at Tuesday Archive LInky under our Diamonds theme!! myplvl.blogspot.com
I would love to decorate my table with that beautiful star runner. The detail is wonderful and you did such a nice job with the quilting. The pebbles are perfect for it. Nice job.
Lovely little quilt! Love the piecing, but the quilting really makes it pop.
Great idea! Love the look of the one block table runner, very pretty :)