Burlap Brights in action!

Would you believe that this quilt is a one-block wonder? Wendy Sheppard used a rainbow's worth of our Burlap Brights prints to create this eye-catching design. The quilt, named Sherry's Stars (read why below), is featured in the October-November issue of Quilter's Newsletter. A clever piecing method means making these blocks is easier than you'd think! Wendy talks about the technique, the group effort in making this quilt, and her color choices below.

Sherry's Stars designed by Wendy Sheppard;
pieced by Sherry McConnell and machine quilted by Darlene Szabo;
featured in Quilter's Newsletter Oct/Nov 2015 

What do you like about the Burlap Brights?

I love the bright colors, first of all. But then, I think the Burlap texture on the bright colors is such a different concept! And the quilt as a result has a really nice textured look to it.

How did you pick your palette?

When I work with fabrics that are more along the "basic" line and not print or theme specific, my instinct is to incorporate as many colors as possible. That's why you see the different colors being used in the final design.

With the bright colors in the larger patches, I need a bit of contrast. So, I played around and came up with the gray/black/brown accents to provide the contrast, and draw the eye's attention from all the brights to focus on the stars made with the gray, black and brown!

You mention there are no Y-seams in here. Any hints on how it’s made?  The units that make up the stars are strip pieced, and then cut at an angle.  The magazine spread has precise instructions and diagrams showing how to make the units without Y-seams.

What do you like best about this quilt?

I like seeing all the colors, and the Hunter Stars!

Can you tell us about the quilting motifs? They show up so well on the tonal fabrics.

I quilt 95% of my quilts. In this case, longarm quilter Darlene Szabo had free rein to quilt whatever she felt like, and she came up with the perfect quilting motif for the quilt. The motif is shown in the quilt diagram in the magazine for those who want to duplicate the motif exactly as quilted on my Sherry's Stars.

Tell us about the collaborative effort on this quilt.

While I try to make my own magazine quilt samples, everyone now and then, I run into really tight spot when trying to meet all the different deadlines. That's when I beg my quilting angels (Sherry McConnell of Indiana and Darlene Szabo of Arkansas) to save my life. And they ALWAYS do.  Sherry was actually the one who came up with the idea of not using Y-seams for the block construction (and I named the quilt after her as a thank you!). Sherry, my quilting angel #1, pieced the quilt top, and Darlene, my quilting angel #2, quilted the quilt. Without these dear friends, this quilt wouldn't have happened, and I am deeply grateful!

Click here to see the entire Burlap Brights collection.
Click here to read more about Wendy's quilt.
Click here to find the kit for this quilt.
Click here to find Quilter's Newsletter magazine.

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Burlap Brights Winners

Thanks to everyone who followed along in our Burlap Brights Block Hop the last couple of weeks! 

Below are the randomly selected winners from each day of the hop, as well as links to the tutorials in case you missed one. The winners will be receiving a fat quarter bundle of the six Burlap Brights colors we used throughout the hop. We can't wait to see what they make with these texture-look prints!

Congratulations to the winners!

Day 1: Chris from made by ChrissieD

Winner: Kathy D.

Day 2: Mary from Mary on Lake Pulaski

Winner: Dody

Day 3: Alison from Little Bunny Quilts

Winner: Margaret

Day 4: Debby from Debby Kratovil Quilts

Winner: Annie R.

Day 5: Kristen from KD Quilts 

Winner: Jacque

Day 6: Benartex design team

                                      Winner: Sally

Day 7: Stephanie from Stitched Together Studios

Winner: Sophie

Day 8: Julie from The Crafty Quilter

Winner: Donna W.

Day 9: Cynthia from Quilting is more fun than Housework

                                    Winner: Vicki S.

Day 10: Jessica from Quilty Habit 

Winner: Michele O.

Day 11: Wendy from Ivory Spring

Winner: TinLiz

Winners, you'll be hearing from us via email so we can get your mailing address and send these fabric rainbows out to you!

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Burlap Brights Blog Hop: Day 11

Welcome to the eleventh and last day of our Burlap Brights Block Hop! We hope you've enjoyed the eleven block tutorials our designing friends have been sharing here this week and last week. Be sure to stop by each day to see a new block and have a chance to win some Burlap Brights for yourself!

Today, Wendy from Ivory Spring is sharing her block. Check out her tutorial and then scroll to the bottom of this post to enter for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the six Burlap Brights prints featured in our hop.

Hello Everyone, this is Wendy from Ivory Spring.  I am brightly happy to be participating in Benartex's Burlap Brights blog hop.  It's always fun to be part of Benartex's hops.

So the idea is to use 6 colors from the fabric line to construct a 12" block.  Because I am kind of on a personal quest to see how many ways I could doctor and use the sawtooth star block, my block is a sawtooth star variation block.  I am calling my it Happy Go Around Star!

Supplies and cutting:

For this block, we will be using all 6 Burlap Bright fabrics and 1/8y of white ground fabric.

From white ground fabric, cut

4 (4" x 4") squares

6 (3 1/2" x 3 1/2") squares

4 (1 1/2" x 3 ") rectangles

From blue, green and purple fabrics, cut 

1 (4" x 4") square

From red fabric, cut 

1 (4" x 4") square

1 (1 1/2" x 1 1/2") square

From yellow and orange fabrics, cut

1 (3 1/2" x 3 1/2") square

2 (2" x 2") squares

Block assembly:

1.  Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of all the colored squares, except for the (1 1/2" x 1 1/2") red square.

2.  Using the green square as example.  Place (4" x 4") green square, right sides together, on 1 (4" x 4") white square.  Sew 1/4" away from, and on right and left sides of drawn line.  

Cut along drawn line.  Open and press to yield 2 half-square-triangle (HST) units.  

Repeat for the red, blue, purple (4" x 4") as well as the yellow and orange (3 1/2" x 3 1/2") squares, using white squares of corresponding sizes.

3.  Lining up the diagonal line of the HST units against the 45 degree line of the ruler, trim the red, purple, blue and green HST units to measure 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" raw edge to raw edge, and yellow and orange HST units to measure 3" x 3" raw edge to raw edge.

4.  Making Block Center.

Sew 1 yellow HST unit and 1 orange HST unit to the opposite long sides of 1 (1 1/2" x 3") white rectangles.   Repeat to make 2 pieced rows.

Sew 2 (1 1/2" x 3") white rectangles to the opposite sides of 1 (1 1/2" x 1 1/2") red squares into a pieced rows.

Sew the rows together to complete block center.

5.  Sew 1 green HST and 1 purple HST together into a pieced column.  Repeat to make 2 columns, and add to the right and left sides of block center.

6.  Making Corner Unit.

Place 1 (2" x 2") yellow square, right sides together, on 1 (3 1/2" x 3 1/2") white square.  Sew on drawn line.  Trim 1/4" away from sewn line.  Open and press to reveal yellow corner triangle.

Repeat to make a total of 2 yellow and 2 orange corner units.

7.  Arrange and sew together 1 yellow corner unit, 1 orange corner unit, 1 red HST and 1 purple HST into a pieced row.  Repeat to make 2 rows, and add to the remaining opposite sides of block center to complete block.

Quilt Option:

You can easily make a number of these blocks, and sew them to make a quilt. 

My husband walked by my work station, and commented how he liked the block!  So, I will be making a few more blocks myself to turn it into a quilt!

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you have liked my Happy Go Around Star block.  The colors sure make one happy, don't they?!

Even more so, I hope you have enjoyed seeing the other designers' creatively designed blocks!

Have a great day!

For a chance to win your own rainbow bundle of Burlap Brights, make sure you're signed up to follow our blog (through a blog reader or by email; both options are in the right hand sidebar). Leave a comment letting us know that you are and tell us if you've ever made a rainbow colored quilt. 

Make sure you check out each day's tutorial!

Day 1: Chris from made by ChrissieD

Day 2: Mary from Mary on Lake Pulaski

Day 3: Alison from Little Bunny Quilts

Day 4: Debby from Debby Kratovil Quilts

Day 5: Kristen from KD Quilts 

Day 6: Benartex design team
Day 7: Stephanie from Stitched Together Studios
Day 8: Julie from The Crafty Quilter
Day 9: Cynthia from Quilting is more fun than Housework
Day 10: Jessica from Quilty Habit 

To see the entire schedule, click here.

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Burlap Brights Block Hop: Day 10

Welcome to the tenth day of our Burlap Brights Block Hop! We hope you've been enjoying the eleven block tutorials our designing friends have been sharing here this week and last week. Be sure to stop by each day to see a new block and have a chance to win some Burlap Brights for yourself!

Today, Jessica from Quilty Habit is sharing a wonky improv block using all six of the rainbow colors. Check out her tutorial and then head over to her blog to enter for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the six Burlap Brights prints featured in our hop.

Hi, I'm Jessica Skultety of Quilty Habit, and I'm excited to be a part of the Burlap Brights Blog Hop! I'm a teacher and lecturer of modern and modern traditional quilting, long-term blogger, writer, commission sewist, and home machine quilter. I blog several times a week and you can also check up on me on Instagram daily - @quiltyhabit. 

These Burlap Brights textured solids add a bit of "oomph" to what could just be a solid (I love solids, too, but that's beside the point). I can't wait to add these to my fabric stash, which is sorted by rainbow color. I use bright colors the most in my sewing, and I also love improvisation. Put both together and you have magic! That's why I decided to write a tutorial for an improvisational block, which I'm calling Wonky Piano Keys.

Wonky Piano Keys Block Tutorial

1. Cut a strip 5" wide x 18" from each of your rainbow fat quarters.

2. Cut 6 strips from each color between 2.5 inches and 1.25 inch wide. 

You can layer them for faster cutting (usually I would place them directly 

on top of each other but I have both showing here, so you can see). 

3. Decide how you will lay out your block in three horizontal panels. You 

could mix it up and go completely rainbow scrappy for the whole thing, 

or you could separate colors. I decided to make two panels of cool colors 

and one middle panel of warm colors. 

4. Sew strips together at a slight angles, with a quarter inch seam allowance. 

You can vary it up - just make sure the width of your overall strip doesn't go 

less than 4.5 inches. I decided to alternate the colors and the sizes. 

5. Trim after sewing each strip.  

6. Press the whole strip when it gets between 12.5 - 13" long. Press individual 

strips in the same direction. 

*Note: You may have to cut more strips of fabric from your 5"x18" pieces, 

based on the size of your angles. 

7. Repeat steps 4-6 for two more panels.

8. Trim all strips down to 4.5".

9. Sew together using a quarter inch seam. Press both long seams. 

10. Trim block down to 12".

 

Enjoy your new block! A whole quilt of these would be fabulous. 

If you sew it up warm vs. cool as I did, you could even alternate for the 

next block (cool in the middle, warm on the outsides). I hope you are 

inspired to experiment with improvisation!

Thanks Jessica! Head over to Quilty Habit to enter to win a fat quarter 

bundle of the six Burlap Brights she used to make her block.

Make sure you check out each day's tutorial!

Day 1: Chris from made by ChrissieD

Day 2: Mary from Mary on Lake Pulaski

Day 3: Alison from Little Bunny Quilts

Day 4: Debby from Debby Kratovil Quilts

Day 5: Kristen from KD Quilts 

Day 6: Benartex design team

Day 7: Stephanie from Stitched Together Studios

Day 8: Julie from The Crafty Quilter

Day 9: Cynthia from Quilting is more fun than Housework

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