June 4, 2014 by ivoryspring

Solar Star in Annie’s DAZZLING DIAMOND QUILTS

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

April 18, 2014 by ivoryspring

Tulip Trail in THE QUILTER (April/May 2014)

Hello Friends, I do appreciate you stopping by. I hope you have been well, and for those of you who are in the “under the weather” category like me, I hope you will get to feeling better very soon!

A few months ago, I had posted this sneak peek of my quilt, and asked for your suggestions in naming the quilt… click here to see all the suggestions.

The finished quilt is being featured in the current April/May 2014 issue of The Quilter. The editorial team of The Quilter officially named the quilt Tulip Trail, and you will see the reason for the name in the following image — the fussy cut border strips.

Here you see the quilt in its entirety.

image source: The Quilter

Tulips aside, the combination of the light taupe and cooler color palette in this quilt reminds me of a walk on the sandy beach on a cool morning.

Tulip Trail is constructed of large blocks, 15″ x 15″ (finished) for those who like to work with large patches. For once, I didn’t make a quilt using tiny patches, eh? You can probably also able to tell that these blocks are fairly easy to construct. They are — because I have intended for this quilt to actually be used. :)

Click here to purchase kits.

Tulip Trail uses fabrics from Benartex’s Palm Springs fabric collection. You may recall I had designed a free-to-use design for Benartex, My Cozy Sweater, shown below. Click here for information on the free pattern download. Click here to view the entire fabric range… you can see how the choices of fabrics alter the “feel” of the quilt design. Tulip Trail looks cool and airy, while My Cozy Sweater looks warm, and… cozy!

Back to Tulip Trail, I kept the quilting scheme simple, uniform and predictable with marked quilting. Someone recently wrote and asked what kind of markers I use. I generally use the blue “Mark-B-Gone” washable marker. Quilting was done using Aurifil Mako 50 Cotton thread over Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting.