Crayola Explosion--a Lone Star with Island Batik

The Lone Star is a classic quilt pattern.  This month, Island Batik challenged their ambassadors to make a Lone Star with one of the newest fabric collections.  I've made a Lone Star once before, back in 2004 (pre-blog) and I used QuiltSmart's fusible interfacing. Since I used QuiltSmart interfacing for my June challenge, I decided to look for an alternative.  I found a fabulous tutorial on YouTube from Jordan Fabrics.  This tutorial uses 2 1/2" strips AND is made without Y seams.  Sold!  (And I'm not the only ambassador who used this tutorial!)

 

Though I loved the Jordan Fabrics tutorial, I knew I didn't want my colors to be random. I was feeling low-tech, so I started with a printable Lone Star and got out my colored pencils.  I love this design, but would have to add a purple from the basics collection to the already bright and wonderful Chickadee.  I also wasn't sure this would allow for enough of the 20 fabrics in Chickadee.  So I then turned to EQ8 to plan my fabric placement.  I loved a lot of layouts, but really wanted to showcase as many of the bright fabrics in Chickadee as possible.  My final design includes 15 fabrics in the star itself and a 16th as the binding.  I used the always-available Coconut from the Foundations collection as the background.

I loved the Jordan fabrics tutorial!  I did not use the off-cut sections as she does, but I did save them and I have an idea on how to use them, it's just a matter of finding the time. I did mark and pin my intersections, which is time-consuming but worth it.  I am not normally a pinner but in this case it felt important, and I'm happy with my point intersections. One thing I did do that helped a lot is print out a copy of color placement from EQ.  Then I marked the sections of three that the pattern/tutorial create, so I would have an idea of how to piece it and how to lay it out.

 

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Accuquilt, Schmetz, Hobbs, Prairie Spirit Alpacas, and Aurifil.

 

One of the best parts about this method is that it uses 2 1/2" strips.  I cut mine with my Accuquilt Go! cutter and their 2 1/2" strip die. I was able to cut all my strips fairly quickly and they are so accurate!  My pressing mat from Prairie Spirit Alpaca was great for helping to press seams as flat as possible. I quilted it with Aurifil Thread color 1135 Pale Yellow.  I used Hobbs 80/20 bleached batting, perfect for quilts with a light background.  All stitching was done with a Schmetz chrome needle.

 

cutting strips with AccuQuilt

 In addition to the larger Lone Star, which uses 20 2 1/2" strips, Jordan Fabrics has a tutorial for a wall hanging Lone Star as well.  I had a fun idea for a bonus Lone Star project. I used this second tutorial, but I knew that I needed it even smaller for what I had in mind.  So I cut my strips for my "baby Lone Star" 1 1/2" wide but otherwise followed the tutorial.  This one uses 5 different fabrics.  I used 3 that weren't in my full-sized Lone Star, plus 2 repeats, meaning I used 19 of the 20 fabrics in the Chickadee collection.  Here is my baby Lone Star--come back on Friday to see my bonus project!

 

Small Lone Star

 

Chickadee was designed by Kathy Engle for the Whimsical Workshop. This collection is full of bright colors and makes me think of the original Crayola marker packs I had to take to school as a kid, So I named this Crayola Explosion.

Want a chance to win some Chickadee fabric? I cut an extra 2 1/2 inch strip of each fabric except the binding fabric, so I have a set of 18 2 1/2" strips to give away. See the Rafflecopter below to enter.  Be aware that I likely won't ship the prize until the new year, as I don't love going to the post office close to Christmas.  Any blog comment will count, but if you need a prompt, tell me what classic quilt pattern is next on your to-make list.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stop by and visit my friend and fellow ambassador Preeti Harris @  Sew Preeti Quilts and see what she made with the Chickadee collection.  And be sure to check out all the ambassadors throughout the month of December for their Lone Star quilts.  You can find the schedule here.