Starry Night at the Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

I'm very excited to be in the 2011 Fall Bloggers' Quilt Festival, hosted by the talented Amy!


I made this quilt a year ago for S + R's new baby. I wanted to make something bright and colourful but not too babyish, as it would be big enough to use through the toddler and preschool years.

When I came across Bonnie Hunter's Sister's Choice quilt pattern, I knew this would be perfect for the jewel toned batiks I had been hoarding! I love these batiks - the colours are so vibrant, the designs are beautiful and varied, and they are completely colourfast so I don't have to worry about prewashing. (I only work with Hoffman and Kaufman batiks since I know they won't bleed in the wash, and the hand of the fabric is wonderful. I haven't tried anything else but if anyone has any others to recommend, I'd be happy to hear your suggestions!)

Using Bonnie's pattern, I made a dozen star blocks that were mostly scrappy. They all have various shades of green for the points, and the background is made up of a couple of different dark navy batiks. (do you see the rogue red block in there?) At this point I liked how they looked (the below photo is a little washed out), but wanted to brighten it up with an interesting border.

Auditioning borders

I chose the border on the right - navy in the middle.  To solve the problem of the corners (I didn't feel like dealing with a mitered corner, as much as I love how they look!), I just added a 9-patch block which also gave the corners a neat woven look.

The quilting is just a basic meandering pattern that I resort to far too often when I can't decide what to do.  I backed the quilt with a hippo print from Ikea, and bound it using the same navy as the background.  The binding was finished by machine using a blanket stitch. I usually hand-stitch the binding down on the back, but I most likely left this to the last minute and had no time!

And here is one last photo that shows the colours best (on my screen, at least), and also shows that crinkly texture we all love! There is nothing better than taking a new quilt out of the drier for the first time, when all its little flaws have magically been erased!

I hope you enjoyed this little post! Please go and look at all the other wonderful quilts at the Festival!