Acacia Stars Quilt

This quilt is actually my first quilt finish of the year, but I've been waiting to post about it until now.

I am on the exhibition committee of the local guild I belong to, Capital Quilters, and as part of the fundraising for our exhibition, we are raffling this quilt off. I made it specifically as a raffle quilt and have attempted to bridge the gap between modern and traditional with this quilt, in keeping with our exhibition theme, which is "Quilting: A Modern Tradition". I especially think that Tula Pink is a fabric designer who appeals to both modern and traditional quilters - her more recent fabrics are a bit brighter but if you look at her early designs like Flutterby the colours are quite on the traditional side and even now she often includes shades which I think of as traditional (like the olive green in the Acacia collection, for example). To make this quilt, I used a bundle from Westwood Acres which included Tula Pink's Acacia collection and co-ordinating solids, and some yardage of the raccoon print for the border.

 

So, anyway, star blocks are beloved by modern and traditional quilters alike, and the border is quite traditional apart from the inclusion of raccoons(!). This border was just not going to work unless I matched the raccoons in the print (which I had not done before). I used this excellent tutorial, except that I matched the prints with a straight seam, not angled seam as shown. I'm quite proud of the results and you really can't see the seams in the border unless you look really close!

I made the star blocks slightly at random - aiming mainly to have good contrast between the star and the background fabrics, and not worrying too much about the fabric combinations. This left me with a bit of a challenge when setting the arrangement of the blocks for the quilt top and I spent quite some time moving them around my design wall. Ultimately I arranged them with the backgrounds in a sort of rainbow order.

 

Once I'd made the top, I handed it over to Sue Burnett and she did the wonderful quilting, using a quilting pattern that is specifically designed to go in eight pointed stars like these. A border version of the same design has been used in the border for continuity, and the whole quilt was quilted with a light purple thread that blended nicely with most fabrics.

With plenty happening on the front of the quilt, I wanted something simple for the back, and the fact that I didn't have to piece this Robert Kaufman Extra Wide fabric was a happy bonus. I knew from before I even starting sewing the top together that I wanted to use that dotty strip for the binding and it worked out really nicely. I even hand stitched the binding down - all 328" of it!

We have started selling raffle tickets for this quilt and so far I think they're selling well. I'm excited for the person who wins this quilt and making it was a nice experience (if slightly nerve-wracking - I wanted this quilt to be just right!). If any of my New Zealand readers would like to buy a raffle ticket, please let me know - they are $2 each or a book of 5 for $10. As much as I would love to sell tickets to my overseas readers, I'm a bit wary about complying with foreign gambling laws (it sounds funny, but in New Zealand raffles are covered by gambling legislation and we have made sure we are complying with local law) so I'm going to restrict sales to New Zealanders - sorry about that.

If anyone would like to come to our exhibition, here are all the details:

This will be my first time exhibiting and I'm quite excited. I'm also strangely nervous - I've gotten comfortable blogging about my quilts and showing them online but having them in a show is something quite different. Have you exhibited a quilt and how did you feel about it?

Quilt Stats
Finished Size: approx 76" by 88"

Fabric: Tula Pink's Acacia collection and co-ordinating solids

Backing: Robert Kaufman 108" wide Spot On fabric in Steel

Binding: Pixel Dot in Teal from Tula Pink's Acacia collection

Pieced by: me
Quilted by: Sue Burnett

I'll be linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

WIP Wednesday

This week I've been working on this quilt using Tula Pink's Acacia collection.  It's going to be raffled off as part of my local quilt guild's exhibition later this year.  The star blocks were pretty speedy to make and choosing all the fabric combinations was a lot of fun!

This quilt top is finished so it's now out for long-arm quilting.  I'm glad I don't have to quilt this 88" by 76" monster myself!

By the way, if you need to match a print on a border, this tutorial is what I used, and I think it's fantastic.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

WIP Wednesday

A quick WIP Wednesday today, because although I have lots of WIPs on the go, they mostly aren't at interesting stages.  First up is this block I made a couple of weeks ago for Tracey in the Simply Solids bee.  It's made using the Star pattern from Faith at Fresh Lemon Quilts' Summer Sampler Series.

 

I'm particularly pleased with the hot colours in this block - they really make it for me.

The next block is part of my newest WIP, one that I am very excited about.  My local guild, Capital Quilters, is holding an exhibition of members' quilts next year.  Each time there is an exhibition, a raffle is held, with a quilt as the main prize.  I am on the exhibition committee and am making the raffle quilt (although it will get sent out for long arm quilting - phew!).

This is block number one of thirty for the raffle quilt.  I am using a bundle of Tula Pink's Acacia collection with co-ordinating solids from Westwood Acres (you can also find Acacia at Stitchbird and Fat Quarter Shop).

The pattern is super simple and based on a Kaffe Fasset design - just eight pointed stars like this with a border.  I won't be fussy cutting for every block, but I just could not resist featuring the raccoon in this way - isn't he soooo cute?!  I am rather concerned that I won't be able to let this quilt go when it's done...  Also, between this quilt and a couple of others, I have a lot of HSTs to trim, so I bought a couple of Bloc Loc rulers to help.  I haven't done much trimming with them yet, and will do more of a review when I have, but so far I like.

Have you found any new gadgets lately?  I'm not hugely into gadgets, but I'm definitely willing to invest in things that will make the quilting experience better.  A good example is the little wee rotary cutter with a 28mm blade that I bought recently.  I never thought I would need more than one size of rotary cutter, but it is great for all that HST trimming - I feel like the smaller blade gives me much more control.  I'd love to know what makes your quilting experience better.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced: