I have been on a journey this year to see how many stars and shapes I can place in a One Block Wonder.
Timeless Treasures Last Dance
I found this great fabric from Timeless Treasures called “Last Dance”. The Skeletons are about 6 1/2″ tall.
Octagons
Last Dance made some great octagons. I wanted to add a bat in my design also.
Moonlight Flight
My friend and fellow Studio 180 Design Certified Instructor Beth Sidley designs great patterns. I love Moonlight Flight and decided to use her bat for my quilt. You can purchase Moonlight Flight from her Etsy shop Park Bench Designs.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Stitchin Heaven’s Journey’s BOM – Month 12! This has been a spectacular year. You all have worked so hard. Thank you to Deb Luttrell, Founder of Stitchin Heaven, Deb Tucker, Creative Kingpin of Studio 180 Design, Marie Bostwick New York Times best selling author and Jason Yenter Fabric Designer & President of In the Beginning Fabrics for making this all possible. Now to assemble your quilts!
Print 4
Print 6
Print 11
Print 12
Note: WOF stands for width of fabric. This month you will assemble your quilt top and add the borders.
Gather the following pieces:
4 Corner Sections from Month 6
Block K from Month 7
4 Middle Edge Sections from Month 9
4 Pieced Border sections from Month 11
Finishing Instructions
Step 1 – Lay out the Corner Sections, Middle Edge Sections, and Block K as shown in the diagram on page 35.
Step 2 – Stitch the sections together into rows, press the seams open. Stitch the rows together to create the quilt center.
Step 3 – Attach the 72½” Print 11 inner border strips. Find the center of the quilt and the center of the 72½” border strip. Match the center points with right sides together, pin. Match both ends of the strip with the ends of the quilt and pin in place. Ease the quilt top to match the border strip and add more pins between the others to hold the border in place as you stitch. Attach the other 72½” border to the opposite side in the same manner and press toward the inner border strip.
Step 4 – Repeat step 3 for the 75½” Print 11 border strips.
Step 5 – Attach the 75½” Print 6 middle border strips. Using two of the border strips, stitch them to the quilt in the same manner as in step 3. Press toward Print 6.
Step 6 – Stitch a Print 4 middle border corner stone to each end of the remining 2”x 75½” Print 6 borders. Press toward the middle border.
Step 7 – Attach the remining two middle border strips to the quilt as described in step 3. Make sure to nest the seams. Press toward the middle border.
Step 8 – Add the pieced borders. Start with the borders that do not have the N Units on the ends. Orient the pieced borders so that the Corner Pops are against the middle border and the points of the V Blocks are pointing away from the quilt center. Refer to the diagram. Find the center of the quilt top and the center of the pieced border. Match the centers and pin. Match each end and pin. Ease the border to match the quilt top and add more pins between the others to hold the border in place as you stitch. Stitch in place. Press toward the middle border.
Step 9 – Repeat step 8 for the other pieced borders with the N Units attached to the ends. After you have matched the centers and the ends, make sure that you nest the Corner Beam seam with the seam attaching the pieced border.
Note: We recommend that you wait to cut your outer borders to length until you can measure your quilt top. To determine your specific border length, measure the longest side of your quilt in three different places. If those measurements are different, add the three measurements together and divide by three. That will be the length that you need to cut your first two borders. Once the first two borders are attached to the quilt repeat the process for the remaining two sides.
Step 10 – Add the outer borders. Find the center of the quilt and the center of the 90½” outer border strip. Match the center points with right sides together, pin, match either end of the strip with the ends of the quilt, and pin in place. Add more pins between the others, about every 4”, to hold the border in place as you stitch. Attach the other 90½” border to the opposite side in the same manner and press toward the outer border strip.
Step 11 – Repeat step 10 for the 102½” outer border strips.
Step 12 – Finish with Batting, Backing, Quilting, and Binding! Layer quilt top with batting and backing. Baste and quilt. Bind and Enjoy!
Journeys
Thank you all so much for joining us on this Journey! Congratulations on a job well done!
Welcome to Stitchin Heaven’s Journey BOM – Month 7 Liberty Star. This month, you will be using the 12” markings on the Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star tool, but you will be working with them as quarters that will be trimmed to 6½” using your Tucker Trimmer 1 before you sew them into the quilt.
Note: Some of your strip sizes are in sixteenths of an inch. These are necessary in order to equally divide the diamond into three sections. To cut the sixteenth of an inch you will see that after the sixteenth measurement there is a 1¼”+ listed. This means that you should locate the 1¼” mark on your ruler then move up just a bit to get to a 1⁵/16” measurement. You want to be as close to the half way point between the ¼” mark and the ⅜” mark as possible.
Piecing Instructions
You will be using the standard Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star strip piecing for the “B” sections and fussy cut piecing for the “A” sections.
Step 1 – Lay out the Print 1, Print 2, and Print 8 strips as shown in the diagram.
Stitch together Print 2, Print 8 & Print 1, making four strip sets.
Step 2 – Stitch the strips into 4 strip sets, two will be used to create your “A” sections and two will be used to create your “B” sections.
Step 3 – Press all the seams toward Print 2, the widest strip.
Tip: To keep strip sets straight while pressing – it helps to draw a line on your ironing board with a sharpie and ruler. If the strip set wants to curve just keep re-adjusting it along the straight line.
Tip: After stitching your strips together measure the strip set to be sure it measures 3 1/4″ wide.
“B” Section Construction
Step 4 – Sew a strip set from step 3 on page 19 to a background strip to make a “B” section strip. Stagger your pieced strip 4¾” down the background strip. Be sure to sew the Print 1 to the Print 11 background strip. Press the seam toward your colored strip set. Make two.
Step 5 – Cut the “B” sections by placing the strip set right side up on the cutting mat. Make your first diagonal cut to clean up the end and set your angle. Then sub-cut the strip set into 3¼” sections. You will need a total of 16 sub-cuts.
Note: When cutting the Section B segments, place your 45 degree line on a seam to help establish the correct angle. Section B sections are cut 3 1/4″ wide. Cut almost to the end of the ruler and move the ruler up re-aligning the ruler on the 3 1/4″ line.
Step 6 – Cut Again. Make a vertical “second cut” to each sub-cut section. Make sure to leave a small gap between the tip of the diamond and the start of your vertical cut. One quarter of an inch will suffice.
Step 7 – Lay out, stitch, and press your pieced “B” sections toward the small side triangles you just stitched.
Remember, “whatever you are pressing toward goes on top”, so lay your pieced units on the ironing board with the small triangles on top and press.
“A” Section Construction
Step 8 – Cut the 4¾” x 4¾” Print 11 squares in half diagonally. Make the diagonal cut ¼” from the true diagonal to create small and large half square triangles.
Tip: You can use your regular ruler or your Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star tool to make the diagonal cuts as shown below.
Each square yields one large and one small triangle.
Step 9 – Cut the remaining two colored strip sets into individual diamonds. Place a strip right side up on the cutting mat as shown, align the 3¼” window template on the back end of the Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star tool over the strip set and cut up the side. Rotate the first diamond and again align the 3¼” lines with the edges of the diamond and trim off the excess fabric. Continue repositioning the tool and cutting using the 3¼” window template until you have 16 diamonds.
Step 10 – Lay out, stitch, and press. Lay out the fussy cut diamonds, the large and small half square triangles right sides up as shown. Be sure Print 1 (Dark Blue) is positioned by the small triangle.
Be sure Print 1 (Dark Blue) is positioned by the small triangle.
Stitch the large triangles in place first and press the seam toward the background fabric.
Press the seam toward the background fabric.
Stitch the small triangles next and press these seams toward the diamond section. Make 16 “A” star points.
Press these seams toward the diamond section
Step 11 – Trim all “A” and “B” triangle sections using the 12” line on the Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star tool. See diagram. Pay Attention here! It’s easy to forget this step.
Step 12 – Assemble quarters. Arrange the sewn and trimmed “A” and “B” sections into quarter blocks. Stitch the sections together and press the seams open to best distribute bulk. You should have 16 quarters total.
Step 13 – Trim the quarters to 6½” x 6½”. Clean up the dog ears and true up the first corner as shown. You should only be trimming off the dog ears and an additional thread or two in this trim. Then rotate the unit to trim the opposite corner. Align the common diagonal with the seam and the 6½” clean up lines with the trimmed edges to trim the remaining two sides. Repeat for all 16 quarters.
First TrimSecond Trim
Step 14 – Assemble the quarters into the center block. Lay out the quarters as shown and sew them together into rows. Press the seams open.
Step 15 – Stitch the rows together and press the seams open. Label this Section K.
Welcome to Stitchin Heaven’s Journeys Month 5. My helper for Month 5 is Deb Tucker, of Studio 180 Design. This month you are going to learn to make Lemoyne Star Quarters using the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star and Tucker Trimmer I tools. You will be using Prints 7, 9 & 11. Label your fabrics and use your best cutting skills when cutting your starter squares.
Prints 7, 9 & 11
Piecing Instructions
Step 1 – Organize Strips. Place Print 9 and Print 7 into two separate piles. Use Print 7 to make the A Strip Set and Print 9 to make the B Strip Set.
Step 2 – Make Strip Sets A and Strip Sets B in the same manner as described in the Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star basic instructions. Position each diamond strip 4¾” down from the top of the background strip. Sew the strips lengthwise and press as indicated in the diagram below. Pay close attention to proper strip alignment and pressing to ensure success.
Step 3 – First Cuts. Layer Strip Set A and Strip Set B right sides together as illustrated. Trim the ends of the strips at a 45° angle, then continue making 45° angle cuts every 3¼” across the length of the strips. You will get 8 cuts from a paired strip set. Cut the remaining strip sets in this manner until you have 20 pairs.
Step 4 – Make Second Cuts going vertically south to north, as shown. Position the ruler edge at the tip of the star strip and trim straight up. These triangles will be added to the pieced unit.
Jackie’s Tip for staying organized is to label two paper plates A & B. For Right handers, Strip “A” is on top & Strip “B” is on the bottom. Cut one unit at a time, place the “A” unit on plate marked “A” & the “B” unit on plate marked “B”. You will always know which units are A & B for pressing.
Step 5 – Arrange, position and stitch the cut pieces together into pieced triangle units. Press as shown in the diagram to yield future nesting seams.
You can chain stitch your “A” and “B” units for easier pressingPress “A” units toward the Star PointPress “B” units toward the side triangle
Tip: Remember “whatever you are pressing toward – goes on top”!
Step 6 – Trim down all pieced triangle units using the 12” line on the Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star tool as shown in the diagram.
Step 7 – Assemble quarters. Arrange the sewn and trimmed A and B sections into quarter blocks. Stitch the sections together and press the seams open to best distribute bulk. You should have 20 quarter blocks total.
You can choose to press your seams open or…You can choose to press the seams so they are all going in the same direction.
Step 8 – Trim the quarters to 6½” x 6½” with your Tucker Trimmer® I tool. Clean up the dog ears and true up the first corner as shown (this should just be a few threads at most), then rotate the unit 180o to trim the opposite corner. Align the Common Diagonal with the seam and the 6½” clean up lines with the trimmed edges to trim the remaining two sides. Repeat for all 20 quarters. Label the finished quarters Unit H.
First TrimSecond Trim
Recap: Make 20 Unit H – Homeward Bound Units.
Homeward Bound, Unit H
Congratulations, you have learned to use your Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star tool!
Stitchin Heaven Quilt Shop is excited to announce a new collaboration of a unique BOM program from Deb Tucker (Studio 180 Design), NYT and USA Today best-selling author Marie Bostwick (Between Heaven and Texas, Hope on the Inside, and the Cobbled Court Quilt Series, including A Single Thread), Deb Luttrell (Stitchin’ Heaven), and Jason Yenter (In the Beginning Fabrics). In this 12-month program you will take your own Journeys through an exclusive novella written by Marie Bostwick. Each month you will receive a chapter from the book which is exclusive to this program. It is a page-turning tale of love, loss, and new beginnings for PJ Lloyd, an adventurous young woman who defies her family and risks her future to make a difference after the attack that plunged America into the second World War.
I will be your guide on this “Journey”. Every month I will post a tutorial showing you how to use the tools required for this beautiful quilt and answering your questions.
Throughout the Journeys BOM you will be on your own journey to learn how to use 8 of the tools from Studio 180 Design. Tools include: V Block, Corner Pop, Four-patch Square Up, Tucker Trimmer, Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star, Square Squared, Wing Clipper, Corner Beam. The final quilt measures 102″ x 102″. A beautiful collection of fabrics have been designed by Jason Yenter of In The Beginning Fabrics, that will make this project an heirloom favorite.
I tested the pattern with fabrics from Deb Tucker’s stash. It is truly a beautiful quilt I can’t wait for you to make your own! The Journey’s BOM program is due to start in September 2020. We will be sure to keep you up to date and informed on all the details.
A conversation with Deb Luttrell, Deb Tucker & Marie Bostwick
The fabrics shown in this post were given to me by Island Batik.
Tropical Escape
Last January Island Batik gave me a secret bundle to hold onto till November, it was Tropical Escape shown above. I sat and looking at the bundle of gorgeous fabrics, waiting for them to talk to me. The goal is for me to introduce the Tropical Escape fabric line by making a quilt showcasing as many of the 20 fabrics as possible.
I decided to use Studio 180 Design’s BlockBuster pattern #29 Pointsettia. This block requires the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star, Split Rects and Tucker Trimmer I tools. You can download the BlockBuster pattern below:
I loved that the Poinsettia block could be made in 7″, 14″ or 21″ finished blocks. I chose the 21″ blocks.
Time to break out the paper plates. I sorted my fabrics by color and value, pairing a light/medium value with a darker value. This would allow me to use 16 different fabrics to form the flowers. I would use the lighter value fabric for the Lemoyne star quarters and the darker value fabrics for the split rects units.
My tip for staying organized while making Lemoyne stars is to label two paper plates, one “A” & one “B”. Follow the Lemoyne star tool instructions. When you come to Step 7, make one 45 degree cut – then imediateley reposition your ruler to cut the side triangles as you go.
If you are right handed the “B” strip was on the bottom & the “A” strip was on top. Place the “A” unit on the plate marked “A” and the “B” unit on the plate marked “B”, place one triangle on each plate also. (If you are left handed the “A” strip would be on the bottom and the “B” strip would be on top). Continue cutting your units, placing each unit on their assigned plate. Construct the Lemoyne units as instructed. Throughout the process you will always know which units are “A” and which are “B”. This is important for knowing which way to press your seams. Another tip for pressing the lemoyne star units is to “remember, the Lemoyne star point should always be pointed to the left”. To make Lemoyne star quarters you will square them up using your Tucker Trimmer 1 before stitching them to the split rects units.
Layout your Lemoyne quarters with your mirror image split rects units and stitch together.
Press seams as shown above.
Continue making your Lemoyne star quarters/split rects units. They are all constructed the same way.
Stitch a background rectangle with each Lemoyne quarter/split rects unit as shown. Follow block assembly instruction in the BlockBuster #29 pattern.
At first I decided to make 6 – 21″ blocks measuring 60″ x 83″.
But I discovered I had enough units to make 9 blocks with left over Lemoyne quarters for the use in the outer border. Quilt measures 83″ x 83″.
It’s funny how this quilt came about. It stared with Island Batik’s fabric line: Tropical Escape; BlockBuster’s Pointsettia block (a Christmas flower); and it is named after a canyon in Arizona. I named this quilt Copper Canyon Blooms as I think they look like desert blooms! In the supply list below I’ve given you fabric requirements for both the 6 block top and the 9 block top.
The fabrics shown in this post were given to me by Island Batik. This quilt was pieced with my favorite thread by Aurifil and completed with Hobbs 100% cotton Batting
The August Challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors is to create a quilt featuring Stars. I chose a design I created in EQ8. I love the way the Lemoyne quarters combines with shaded four patch units creates a shooting star effect.
Quilts and mausoleums……what? Who goes on a “Walk & Talk” tour of Forest Hills Cemetery (founded 1848) in my home town of Utica, NY and gets the idea to photograph quilts there? My mind works in mysterious ways. We have family in Forest Hills and visit there often so that is where I began.
There are so many beautiful mausoleums in Forest Hills. I decided to take photo’s of Shooting Stars in front of them. That may sound weird but I love all the history found in cemeteries. There were so many beautiful doors.
The morning sun was shining through the stained glass.
These beautiful brass doors are what gave me the idea to photograph Shooting Stars there.
I love the way sun rays were streaming or maybe someone was visiting!
These Celtic Crosses are awesome!
We even have a past Vice President.
I love walking through a cemetery and reading the tributes. If you would like a supply list for Shooting Stars download here.
The products and fabrics shown in this post were given to me by Island Batik.
The Island Batik Ambassador’s challenge for May is to “Make It Modern”! The Modern Quilt Guild defines ‘modern” as use of bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative space and alternative grid work. I think I did pretty good.
I decided to make Lemoyne Stars. Deb Tucker’s Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star tool was the very first Studio 180 Design tool I used and is one of my favorites! This tool makes Lemoyne stars in 10 sizes from 3″ to 12″ blocks.
I went to my EQ8 and began to design. The drawing above on the left shows the layout for the Lemoyne stars. The drawing on the right with blue indicates the background I had to fill in. I chose to use the “Add a Plain Block” option. This allows me make a block the same size as the quilt center, color it, and move it to the back, behind the stars to fill in the blank spaces. I also could have used the “Paintbrush” option to color in the background. However, this does not give me the fabric sizes to cut.
I made my 10 different lemoyne stars and went to the design wall. I worked on the right side first. I measured and added a background rectangle to the left and above the green 11″ star. I then added a rectangle to the blue 10″ star so it was the width as the 11″ star above it.
I continued on, adjusting and measuring, adding background fabric, piecing, tying it all together.
Somehow I couldn’t quite maintain the smooth circle.
I guess my stars are ricocheting instead of swirling!
I decided to quilt using a tight meander around the stars and then stitch in the ditch through the seams of the stars so they have a 3D effect. I used the Hobbs Tuscany Cotton Wool Blend to give the stitches great definition.
AND then I liked it better turned upside down, so I flipped it! Lemoynes Lost in Space measures 40″ x 50″.
The background of my quilt is a black batik from Island Batik, it really makes the colors pop!
Happy Spring! As always my quilts are pieced with Aurifil thread. If you want your stars to shine use Island Batik fabrics and your quilt colors will sing!
The fabrics shown in this post were given to me by Island Batik.
Next week, January 7th begins Island Batik’s “Get Away Blog Hop” I’m all ready for my reveal. My secret bundle for this blog hop is Deb Tucker’s Twilight Chic by Island Batik which was introduced at this past fall market.
I participated in Studio 180 Design’s blog hop in November in which I made this version of “Evening Elegance” from the Twilight Chic line.
With fabric I had left I wanted to make a quilt to showcase the seven technique sheets created to expand what you can do with the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star tool.
This is what happens when you put 4 version 1 blocks together.
Exploding Lemoynes version 2 block.
Exploding Lemoynes Version 2 with 4 blocks.
Exploding Lemoynes version 3 block.
Exploding Lemoynes version 3 with 4 blocks put together. These are so cool and easy to make with the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star tool that makes Lemoyne stars in 10 sizes from 3″ to 12″ blocks!
I want to share links to Island Batik’s Great Outdoor Blog Hop for week 3:
If These Threads Could Talk 