A Wedding on the Way!

There's a wedding on the way in our family!! Can you sense the excitement here? Our son G, and his bride-to-be, C will be married this coming fall. Of course, there has to be a quilt made for the soon to be established new family :o)

Knowing the young bride it was easy to select fabrics. She is drawn to earth colors, and things that have a bit of sparkle and shine to them. Can you imagine fabrics more perfect than Shimmer by Jennifer Sampou? The fabrics are made in Japan and come in beautiful shades of blue, gray, taupe, and creams. Each contain a shimmer of silver, gold, or both. Since I'm a bit late to the Shimmer rollout we'll happily go with a mix of Shimmer, Shimmer 2, and Shimmer On :o)

Half yard cuts from Shimmer, Shimmer 2, and Shimmer On

Because of the metallic ink used on these fabrics they are a bit less drapy than regular quilting cottons, but I think in a large lap quilt with fluffy batting and a flannel backing they will lend a nice substance to the quilt. I was able to find a nice assortment of these fabrics on Etsy.

It's difficult to show the lovely metallic in a photograph 

Although the fabrics quickly made themselves evident to me I was initially unsure of what pattern to use. I narrowed my thoughts down to three ideas which I showed the bride and groom. (Although it is tempting to make the quilt as a surprise I really feel that with something requiring this much time I'd prefer to make sure I am creating something that matches their tastes.) Here are the three ideas I came up with for them to preview. First up was the wonderfully modern Octagon Shimmer quilt designed by Jennifer Sampou to go with her fabric line. Obviously this would be a great choice since it was designed especially for these fabrics. Next I pitched the idea of a triangle quilt like this one. I've wanted to make a triangle quilt for some time now and have had this QAL bookmarked on my computer. I think these fabrics would be great in a triangle quilt! Then, to round things out I added in a more traditional quilt design, the Dreamcatcher pattern by Denyse Russart - really a beautiful quilt!

A bit to my surprise the traditional style Dreamcatcher quilt turned out to be their favorite. I almost jumped right in and bought the pattern, but then got to looking at it and thinking...it looks very similar to my Boxed Star quilt block that I designed for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 15.

Boxed Star quilt block designed by me :o)

How fun it would be to have a reason to make a quilt using one of my very own designs! In the magazine each of the blocks must be 12" square. However, I am going to resize my block up to 18" square and go with a 4 x 4 layout. This will allow for a generous 72" square quilt - a good size for cuddling on the couch.

Mock-up of 12" Boxed Star blocks

In my previous post I shared this mock-up of a quilt top using the Boxed Star block. I was thrilled to see the secondary design made by the boxes and squares of blue since secondary design was what I was hoping to achieve. However, I don't want those boxes and squares to be quite as prominent in this wedding quilt, so I'm going to try making them with a lighter contrasting color. That way they will be a completely separate design element from the stars.

I will be combining blue fabrics with the gray and taupe fabrics and each star will be a different combination, thus yielding a more scrappy look to the quilt. (No surprise there, right 😁) As soon as I get a sample block made up I'll be back to share more!

Combinations of blues and gray/taupes

Here's a picture of our sweet couple :o) We can't wait to add C to our family!

Our engaged couple!

Hope you are somewhere warm! It's a cold, windy January day here. Happy sewing!

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 15 Blog Tour

Welcome quilters! Thank you for stopping by Shadows of the Blue Ridge as you travel Quiltmaker's Road Rally! I hope you're having a great time this week visiting all the stops and soaking in the quilty goodness.

Today I get to share with you my newest block, Boxed Star. Boxed Star came about as I was experimenting with creating secondary design using the background space on a quilt block. The first few blocks I designed had plain backgrounds, but I've enjoyed learning how to add secondary patterns to my newest blocks. Here is what Boxed Star looks like as a single block:

Boxed Star

Not bad, and it can certainly be used as a stand alone block as it is here it is in my Random Sampler quilt (center of left edge-made using caramel and tan fabrics)

This is a sampler quilt top that I've recently finished

However, the magic really happens when Boxed Star is used across a quilt top either with or without sashing added. I created these two mock-ups by copying a picture of my block into Google Drawing and then copy/pasting it several times.

Boxed Star quilt top without sashing

When the Boxed Star block is used without sashing the background elements become the focus and the stars becomes the secondary design element. It's always so interesting to see this happen in a quilt. When sashing is used between the blocks (see picture below) the star remains as the focal point and the various boxes are the secondary design element.

Boxed Star quilt top with sashing

Boxed Star is my sixth block to appear in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. When I first thought to design a block I was a bit afraid to actually submit something. After all I'm not someone schooled in design. However, once I pulled out my colored pencils and graph paper and just started sketching ideas I had fun with it - and surprised myself! We all have things we're afraid of, or that make us nervous. Of course, the silliest fear I have is parking in a parking garage. Can you believe it?!? I'm so afraid I'll get my car parked in there and not be able to get back out again. I mean, what if it's an unmanned garage that only takes cash and I don't have correct change? Do you see where I'm going with this? I could be stuck in there with no way to get out! It makes my hands sweat just thinking about it...but, I digress.

Fat quarter giveaway!

Giveaways:
I think it's time for a couple of giveaways! I'm holding a drawing for a copy of 100 Blocks, Volume 15 plus this little spring-time inspired fat quarter bundle (shown above).

In addition, the editors of Quiltmaker's are generously giving one of my blog readers a free issue of 100 Blocks, Volume 15.

For a chance to win just leave a comment telling me about your silliest fear :o) I'll draw random winners on Sunday morning, May 7. Note: If you suspect you may be a "no reply" blogger please make sure to include your email address in your comment.

Well friends, thanks so much for stopping by and letting me tell you all about Boxed Star.  I'd love to see you back here again. If you'd like regular updates from Shadows of the Blue Ridge consider signing up for an email subscription (top right of your screen), or you can follow me on Bloglovin'. You can also find me on Instagram. 

I hope you soak in a lot of inspiration as you visit all the blogs on the tour. You can read about the tour and find links to the featured blogs on Quiltmaker's blog, Quilty Pleasures.