🌟 My Favorite Quilt Block 🌟 Blog Hop

Hello everyone!  Welcome to my stop on the My Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop hosted by Carla at Creatin' In the Sticks.  Thank you so much Carla for letting me participate in this hop!  I hope you all will be sure to visit Carla's blog to enter the drawing she has going after you have visited and commented on the blogs today!

I have had a lot of fun checking out everyone's favorite blocks the past couple days, and no surprise, there have been a lot of star blocks.  I am here to share even more with you!

I am highly attracted to all the star blocks, but really love Lonestar quilts.  I looked the block up in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns (1993) and it says the name Lone Star first appeared in the Ladies Art Company catalog sometime between 1028 and 1934, as well as in patterns from Ruby McKim and Carlie Sexton in that same time period.  It's quite fun to look through this book and see that the Lone Star name was used for 8 blocks that all look very different from what I associate lonestar with!

It is no joke when I say I am very attracted to this block.  I even use it as part of my business logo!  (For those of you who are new to me, I am a longarm quilter in Walla Walla, WA.)

The logo was inspired by the first lonestar I made, which was for the Picnic Blog Hop a number of years ago.  John (my husband) said he felt I had truely become a quilter after I finished that quilt, and thus felt it is a good representation of me and my business.  Isn't that sweet?  Here is my patriotic lonestar with a denim star backing:

I made a flannel baby quilt for a family friend a few years ago:

This is closer to a Lemoyne Star but it's so similar that I am including it; a tree skirt that I made for my Aunt Carolyn:

Just last year I made this beach quilt:

I recently finished this denim backing for my sister's quilt, only to realize I made the top entirely too small!  So, borders will be happening soon... lol!

The Christmas runner is one I began last year, it's a work in progress.  The tiny blue and white star will become the centernof a spool block for a spool quilt that I have in progress, it's so cute!  The diamonds are about 1/2" big.  And the pretty block behind them all is the barn quilt I painted this summer!  I hosted a class for my guild and we had a lot of fun painting our favorite blocks to hang on our houses.  I believe one even was hung on a barn!

In case anyone is wondering, yes, I y-seam all those corners.  It was one of the first techniques I mastered when I started quilting about 7 years ago, and I have since realized I prefer less seams if at all possible.  We will see how long that lasts!

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you will visit my fellow bloggers today and please be sure to leave some comment love!  I would like to know, have you made a lonestar quilt?  If so, what colors?  I am always on the lookout for more star goodness in my life!

Thursday, September 12th

Websterquilt
Cynthia's Creating Ark
Nutz 4 Redwork
Quiltsbyjoanne
Ms P Designs USA
Pampered Pettit
Hill Valley Quilter

Have a wonderful day!
~Brandy

Thomas helped me get our newest addition to the sewing machine family in place this last weekend.  This is my great-great-grandmother's machine, a White treadle that I was told was used to make my great-grandma's diapers.  Seems likely, as the patents listed on the machine range from 1877-1890 and Great-Grandma turned 95 this year... I feel quite fortunate that Grandma said I was welcome to have it as I was the only one to recognize what it was!

Splash of Color Quilt Along

Good morning!  I have decided to join in the  SPLASH of Color Quilt Along with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts and I hope you will join in too!  The rules are quite relaxed, pick out some black and white fabric, a color (or 26 in my case) and any quilt design you would like.  Then link up pictures of your progress every two weeks at Busy Hands Quilts.  You can click on Myra's blog name to visit her site and get more information.

 

I was really lucky to receive Jackie Kunkel's book Splash of Color as a prize for a FMQ quilt along in 2015.  The first quilt that really caught my attention was Star Bright, the 7th quilt in the book.  I especially love the "alternate" version using the darker background fabrics.  I started collection 1/2 yard pieces as John and I travelled around and this year realized I have enough to make a nice scrappy quilt.  Then this quilt along popped up and I decided it is meant to be!  I had also been collecting a bunch of brilliant colors for another quilt idea, but decided they will work better for this.  Some changes I am making to the pattern include reversing the color placement, thus all the blues in my pile, they will be the outer border of stars.  I am also not going to paper piece this, first I didn't want to make all those copies, and second I want this to fit our king size bed and the pattern currently finishes at 88 inches.  I did a test run that you will see below and my blocks will finish at 7.5 inches, meaning my quilt will be 105 inches square!  I am also contemplating making the squares between the star rows into 4-patches, but will wait until I have finished the stars to make that decision final.  There are a lot of stars to make first and I may not want the additional work afterwards LOL!

So a new thing in my life (literally as of a week ago) is this phone.  My father forced me to upgrade to a smart phone when he found he could not send me a smiley face.  The first app I added was Instagram, so I am going to attempt to post occasional photos on there between our linkups for the quilt along.  My IG name is @pamperedpettit if you would like to see other photos.  I do like the ability to take the grayscale photos easily with this phone, that is a great tool for me.  And I had a lot of fun assigning funny ringtones to my family.

Here is my practice block, it's not terribly accurate color-wise as to what the stars in the quilt will look like, but the size and construction was what I was after.  The blocks in the book finish at 6 inches and as I mentioned before this block finishes at 7.5 inches.  I'm pretty excited about this and am starting to understand the allure of scrappy quilts, I am pretty smitten with this block right now.

 I hope you will feel inspired to join in too, the first linkup needs to be added before October 17, so don't take 3 weeks to make this decision like I did HAHAHA!
 



 

 

Have a wonderful day!

~Brandy

Thomas approves of this message and encourages snuggling into a cozy blanket or quilt as we move into colder weather.