What a star!

As you might expect, we love seeing our fabric made into quilts. And we love seeing those quilts in magazines and patterns. But there's just something about seeing a quilt made with our fabric on the cover of a magazine! Walking into a quilt shop or Barnes & Noble, or even the grocery store and having this jump out is pretty great!

Yep! That's a quilt made with Benartex fabric on the cover!
Diane Tomlinson used the Dori collection by Mitzi Powers to create this star-studded beauty, called Star Flowers. The pattern is featured in the March/April 2014 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine. Check out the flat shot of the quilt in the magazine--row after row of stars, point to point. Beautiful!

"Star Flowers" by Diane Tomlinson and machine quilted by Luann Downs;
featured in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting March/April 2014

After admiring this quilt, which we fell in love with at first sight, we asked Diane to share with us how she came up with the design, chose the fabrics, and even worked with those tricky set-in seams!

What attracted you to the Dori collection?  

The colors and whimsical design of the collection.

What do you like about mixing the fabric collection with white?

In this case, it shows off the clear jewel tones of the fabric!

Why stars?

I had the design drawn up and when I saw the collection, it just fit and was perfect.

Any tips for cutting the diamonds? Or for set-in seams?

Use the Fons & Porter Diamond Ruler for cutting them out and mark the corners for the set ins, starting and stopping at each, and you'll get along fine.

How did you narrow down the color palette?

I wanted the softer prints to soften the piecing.

What do you like best about this quilt?

How springy it feels.

Can you tell us about Luann's machine quilting?

When I sent it to her, I told her to do what she felt fit the quilt and when I got it back, I was pleasantly surprised to not only see the colored thread, but unique quilting that was perfect!

This looks like a project for which a design wall would be a huge help. How did you go from having the stars and diamonds on the wall to assembling them?

I worked in sections, laying out on my floor after it outgrew my design wall and put parts together and then rearranged to try to distribute the color.

What do you envision this quilt being used for?

My granddaughter's youth bed when she is old enough.

See the entire Dori collection here.

Find Love of Quilting here.

Watch a video lesson on cutting 60 degree diamonds here.