Welcome to my day on the Island Batik Lone Star Blog Hop! Our challenge was to make a Lone Star quilt of any design and use as many fabrics from our bundle as possible! I have always wanted to make a Lone Star quilt, and this is my chance! I can tell you, without hesitation, that I was a bit intimidated by the challenge. I started looking for no Y-seam patterns for the Lone Star, and my fellow ambassador Gail of Quilting Gail told me about the one from Jordan Fabrics! You should check out Gail’s quilt also!
Donna of Jordan Fabrics has a YouTube video as well as a free pattern on her website. In fact she has a lot of free patterns with videos to help you out! I am not affiliated with her, but very thankful she has such a generous heart!
I received the Island Batik collection Bamboo Blooms by Kathy Engle, in my “surprise package” from our June shipment! This is an awesome collection! I also received two 2 yard cuts of two of the fabrics in this line as well, for the coordinates. These fabrics are so vivid and pretty!
After watching the video and reading the instructions, I chose 18 of the 20 fabrics in the line, and using my AccuQuilt GO 2-1/2″ strip cutter, I cut all the strips and sewed them into sets of three, two of each set.
When I got back to working on it after our anniversary trip, a week or so later, I rewatched the video and started cutting the diamond units.
Following Donna’s instructions, I sewed all the units together, or so I thought until I started putting the larger diamonds together! For some reason, I only came up with four diamonds! How could that be?? After a day and a half of “stewing” over what I had done wrong, I rewatched the video yet again, and then I had that light bulb moment (slapping head here!!) I had resigned myself to the fact I needed to cut MORE strip sets and make more diamonds, but after watching the video, I went to my cutting table, and lo and behold there were the rest of the diamond units to be sewn together. Whew! I did not have to cut any more out! Donna had said to start with right side up diamonds and set the others aside, which is what I did—I just forgot to go back and get the second set! LOL I decided I wanted the darker blue in the center and one of those beautiful lime greens for the very tip of the star points, so, they were sewn, ripped, and re-sewn to make it right! And while I’m telling on myself, during the making of this star medallion, I spent WAY too much quality time with Jackie the Ripper! But, she is finished, and I am SEW pleased with the way she looks! I can tell you, using the alpaca pressing mat from Prairie Spirit Alpacas really made the seams lay flat! My one wish is that I had had enough time and fabric from this line to make it a king sized for my bed!!
After making the medallion, I wanted the star to appear to be floating, so I scrounged (literally) enough fabric of the background to make a 2 inch border all around. Next I added the outer border which finishes at 4 inches.
Once the borders were added, I pieced the backing using the Island Batik foundation, Icing, and loaded it on Ms. Mattie and quilted it using a Hobbs 80/20 black batt. This was the first time I’ve ever used a black batt, but I love how it turned out. This batting quilted like a dream! It was quilted with a medium gray #40 wt Glide thread with Superior Threads #60 wt Bottom Line in silver in the bobbin. I used two motifs from Wasach Quilting (Contempo Diamonds) and combined them for an all over edge to edge design in ProStitcher. After quilting, I made binding to match the outer border. I love using my Purple Hobbies Binding Wheel to roll my binding for quilts. And yes, I chose the purple one!!
Without further ado, I present to you Midnight Star!
The weather here has been really dreary and windy for days, so Sunday afternoon we had a peep of sunshine and ran outside to photograph it. Here’s another view with the photo bomber, Chloe!
Quilt Stats:
Size: 71.5 x 71.5 inches.
Pattern: Lone Star from Jordan Fabrics.
Fabric: Bamboo Blooms by Kathy Engle for Island Batik.
Backing: Icing, from the foundation line (always available) by Island Batik.
Needle: 80/20 Schmetz, my favorite for piecing batiks.
Thread: Pieced with Aurifil 2605, a neutral gray I love to use for piecing. I always use Aurifil #50 weight threads for piecing. They are the best!!
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 black batt.
I would like to thank Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Prairie Spirit Alpacas, Schmetz Needles, and Aurifil Thread for supplying the materials to make this quilt.
Megan Best, Bestquilter, will be sharing her Lone Star, made from this same fabric line on her blog today. So please check it out. It amazed me how two of us can get the same line and the quilts be totally different! Check out my post from Sunday to see the entire week’s line up and head over to Island Batik’s Blog and enter the give away for one of the two great fat quarter bundles this week!
Have a great week! Until next time…
Lovely. I could relate to missing crucial pieces and then discovering them in plain sight. I had never seen the Hobbies Binding Wheel before. This is a tool I’ve wanted and didn’t know existed. Thanks for showcasing.
and thanks, too, for linking up to TGIFF!
A very pretty star indeed!
Wow Brenda your quilt is absolutely gorgeous!! Love the blue background. This has long been on my bucket list for like 20 years I think! I even bought a book and have the fabrics bought but yes there they sit! Thanks for the tutorial link; I’ll check it out.
Another stunningly beautiful quilt Brenda. Lonestar’s are one of my favourite patterns and the IB fabrics make it shine! ?
What a lovely quilt! Such a gorgeous collection. Thanks for sharing on my weekly show and tell, Wednesday Wait Loss.
Oh, what a beauty. That’s a wonderful background for the colors you chose to use. I hope this means your leg is feeling better, too.
This is a gorgeous quilt…love it!
Hi Brenda! What a cool invention for binding! I’ve never seen that before. And black batting – I was just wondering about that yesterday. We have a quilt with a black background and a black backing. The choice of black batting would make total sense, and I’m thrilled to hear you mention it today. Your finish is gorgeous! How could it not be with those IB fabrics?!! Great job. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne
WOW, Brenda, that is a gorgeous quilt!!!!
I love the background blue.
Beautiful quilt! Love the choice of the blue star for the center.
This one is gorgeous…my favorite so far. Thanks for sharing and participating in the blog hop.
Absolutely beautiful!!! I love the blue background – it’s perfect! 🙂
It’s absolutely beautiful Brenda. Well done on a brilliant first-time Lone Star quilt. Are you inspired to make another king size one next?
wow this is absolutely gorgeous. thanks for sharing and insiring.
Brenda, Midnight Star is a spectacular beauty. She truly lights up the dreary landscape. Kudos to you!!!
That is gorgeous! I have never had the courage but I think this challenge will help me to do one. I would have felt like you when I discovered I only had half the required points…..note to self…make a note to self!
Beautiful quilt. I am amazed you could use so many of the fabrics. Just gorgeous.
It’s beautiful Brenda. Fantastic colors that really pop with the back ground.
The colors are so brilliant, and it’s just gorgeous!
Wow Brenda! Your lone star quilt is beautiful and the seam ripping you did to get the dark blue in the center and the lime green on the tips was well worth it!
It’s so beautiful, it looks like it is glowing to me. Love it! Have a great day!
What a masterpiece! The batiks are so pretty. You make such a good ambassador for Island Batiks. 🙂
I love your star quilt, she’s a true beauty!
You floated your star beautifully and your journey in completing it makes it a little less intimidating to try. Beautiful interpretation!
Your Midnight Star is spectacular, Brenda. I love the blue as the background fabric. Beautiful job. Chloe is a doll. Have a very Happy Tuesday
Brenda,Your quilt is just stunning! I really love the patterns and colors of the fabrics that you used in this beautiful quilt.