North Star

I originally intended to quilt North Star last year, but December was such a busy month for me that I did not end up having time, and in a way I'm glad, North Star is one of my absolutely favorite quilts (a 5-star for sure) that I would not want to rush!

Both the fabric and pattern is by Libs Elliott, featuring one of my favorite collections ever by her, Tattooed North. This was a very easy and pleasant sew because it's basically a quilt consisting of half-square triangles. I absolutely love the pops of the gold fabric, it makes this quilt truly shine!

My vision for the quilt is simple: keep to simple geometric designs in the stars, and quilt pockets of more dense swirls for some added texture and specialness.

I assigned a design to each block and executed it consistently, but the quad-star blocks definitely made things more interesting!

I really love the effect of the pockets of swirls I added! I use swirls on 95% of my quilts, and they're without a doubt my favorite filler.

While the metallic fabric definitely caused some issues while quilting, when I look at the end result, I completely forget all the pain. I'm very much in love with the finished quilt, and I'm so happy to start the year with a 5-star quilt top!

Sweet Tooth ~ Is the Piecing Bug Back?

For the last few years, I was in a massive piecing slump. I used to flip through my pattern books, look at Pinterest boards, or stare at my stash, and just get so excited about piecing new quilt tops. But for at least a period of two years, I felt no desire or motivation.

And then, a few weeks ago, a switch flipped, just like that. I suddenly took a look at my Sweet Tooth quilt kit, something I thought was a torture device just a few months ago, and thought, wow, I really want to make this now!

Sweet Tooth is a Block of the Month quilt pattern by Jaybird Quilts, and now that I want to piece again, I'm having such a good time with this quilt! There are 24 of these hex blocks total, 2 colorways for each style, and they're truly enjoyable to put together.

After piecing the blocks, I had to put together all the background pieces. This part took concentration and I had to follow the pattern really carefully, but Jaybird Quilts is an excellent pattern writer, and the instructions were so good and clear.

At the end, a truly impressive looking quilt is finished! It looks complex, and it is, but it really wasn't hard, and I just had to follow the instructions. However, I'm still surprised it came out so well.

I just know this will be so fun to quilt too, when I get around to it (someday)!