Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Seeing Stars Quilt

I made this quilt for a friend's daughter. I actually designed a king size quilt for my friend first, and then created this one to coordinate with the king size. But I want to share this one first. :)

I wanted to make a star quilt, something fun and whimsical for a sweet 6-year old girl to enjoy now and as she grows. I certainly added touches that she will love now (such as the awesome Art Gallery Menagerie print from the Indian Summer line), but tried to stay away from anything too cutesy (which isn't her style, anyway!).

I used the Sparkle Punch quilt by Oh Fransson! as a jumping off point, but added in 3 large stars (centers are 9" square, stars about just until 27" from point to point!) and some itty bitty stars (centers are 1" square, and less than 3" from point to point!).

Warning: Picture colors are off a bit...I was short on time and my lighting options were either full sun or full shade!
Seeing Stars Quilt

I played around with arrangement a bit, but ultimately decided to not disrupt the flow of the majority of the stars. Because of that, I ended up with a decent amount of background around the larger stars. I filled it in a bit with the tiny stars, and I'm really happy with the layout! I like the extra background space, as I think it calms the design down a bit.

Seeing Stars Quilt

Here's that great Menagerie print! I initially bought this for my stash, but I had to use it for this quilt because it suits the recipient so well. (And now my LQS has the print in BOTH colorways, so I restocked my stash!)

Seeing Stars Quilt

If you follow me on instagram (I'm TheGirlWhoQuilts), you probably know that I've been keeping a quilty secret for a few weeks now...I took the plunge and bought a long arm! I'm now the proud owner for a Handi Quilter Avante 18, and I'm so happy with it! It was quite a whirlwind for a bit though, as we set up the machine and I practiced a bit before diving into these customer quilts. This was only my second official quilt on the long arm, and I'm pretty happy with it! I went with a simple swirl design to keep my stress level low. ;)

Seeing Stars Quilt

For the back of the quilt I used mostly the solid from the front, plus a strip of this fun peacock print:

Seeing Stars Quilt

Quilt stats:
Name: Seeing Stars
Size: 75" x 90"
Background: Kona peacock
Prints/fabric lines include: Dear Stella (peacock feathers), Constellations Lizzy House, Architextures, Cuzco by Kate Spain, Pearl Bracelets, Backyard Baby, Indian Summer, Children at Play, Bella by Lotta Jansdotter, Luxe in Bloom
Binding: Constellations by Lizzy House, Supernova pint in purple

17 comments:

CitricSugar said...

The quilt is gorgeous!

And woohoo for a longarm! I tried one at a quilt show last month and hoo-nelly! it was fun. I had palpitations the entire trip home. :-) Enjoy!

wonderlandbyalyce said...

Oooh, so pretty! Congrats on the longarm!

Annabella said...

It's absolutely STUNNING!! The colours you have used are just beautiful.

Sarah @ FairyFace Designs said...

Oh, its fab! Love how you've mixed in the bigger stars and the negative space around them really adds to the design. So pretty. I love it!

Marla said...

I love the big stars! This is one cool quilt.

Dresden Lane said...

wow- I love this. That pattern is more work than it appears- I am not brave enough yet. Congrats on the longarm too - would love to hear more about that.

Carla said...

A beautiful quilt! Congrats on your new 'toy'

Heather D. said...

It's gorgeous Nikki. I love the addition of the huge stars, and the non-neutral background colour.

Congrats on the new machine!

Live a Colorful Life said...

The quilt is just beautiful. It will be very well loved, I'm sure. These teensy little stars just sparkle, like little jewels. How cool you got a long arm!! Exciting!

Pat said...

Wonderful quilt. Congrats on the longarm,

moira said...

just gorgeous. I made a sparkle star thingy last year but I like yours with the space and the big stars

Laura C @ littleandlots said...

A gorgeous quilt! You were smart and right to add the big stars. Good choice of background color, too. Congrats on your longarm purchase! I told my husband I want one someday and he says after we buy a beach house HA HA. :)

Emily said...

Wooohoo! This is such a great quilt! :) Nice work!! And it's so exciting that you took the plunge on the longarm!

Sarah said...

Gorgeous quilt! I think you're right about it needing the large tracts of background to calm it down a bit. The little girl will love it for years. I like how the colours are not too cutesy either.

Sarah said...

oh that is beautiful!

Helen in the UK said...

Love your quilt! The background colour, the prints, the arrangement of stars - brilliant! I didn't even notice the tiny stars at first, but they add the perfect detail. Congrats on a great finish :)

Shelley said...

Are your smaller stars the same size as the pattern (3.5 inches)? I want to do this but with some larger prints that I want to show so I was thinking of making the middles a big bigger, like 5 inches maybe.