Raspberry & Sugarplum Stars

This is my finish (well, finished top - still needs to be quilted) for Huckleberry Stitches April QAL.  The pattern is Sugarplum Stars from the book 101 Fabulous Small Quilts.   Such a pretty design!

The pattern called for tans and purples.  I went with purple star points - it's a really pretty batik purple in person :) but for the rest of the quilt I used pinks.  The light background is white with tiny light pink squares.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly.  It called for a folded little bit of trim between the border and the center.  I've done those before and really like them but it just didn't look right with this little beauty.  The designer's quilt looks great with it, so it may have been the fabrics I chose.  Several fabrics were auditioned for the part, but none made me happy.  I like it this way!

Check out the "parade of quilts" on the Huckleberry Stitches page, and join us next month!

Small Quilt - Spring Morning Stroll

Huckleberry Stitches hosts a quilt along using the book 101 Fabulous Small Quilts.  Though it's been going since January of 2015, I just discovered the quilt along and this is the first time I've participated.  The March project was "Walk - Don't Run" by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene of Country Threads.  I purchased my copy of the book from Amazon and got the Kindle version so I wouldn't have to wait :)

I used a Moda charm pack, Horizon by Kate Spain, that I've had for quite a long time and just never found the perfect project for it.  This was it!

 To keep the bias edges from getting stretched by the presser foot while sewing, I put the triangles on the bottom.  The tips kept getting caught and making a mess of the start of the seam.  (This would be a good time to swap the cover plate with one that just has a small center hole.....if I had one of those plates.)  

Little scraps of tissue paper under the corners solved the problem.  It kept the tips in place and pulling the paper off was easy.  Much better results!

Rather than use a coordinating fabric for the diagonal strips,  I used white.  White can be found in a lot of my quilts.... it looks so fresh.  The instructions said to press to the triangles, but I pressed half the blocks that way and half of the blocks I pressed toward the white. 

Alternating these blocks in the layout of the quilt gave me nice nested seams, instead of bulk where the white strips met.

Using these blocks as leaders and enders while I worked on several other quilts during March made this project a snap to finish.  It was fun to see the blocks piling up during the month. Then a frenzy of sewing to finish last night as I realized it was the last day of the month!

It's still a flimsy, but Spring Morning Stroll will be quilted soon..... as soon as the frame is free.  

Watch Tilda's blog for the "parade of quilts" and the project for April, then join in!