finished my Star Wars top (insert silly reference to movie here, something like the Force was with me today). Ever since seeing THIS lovely by Tiffany, I wanted to make a Crown of Thorns quilt. My top measures approximately 60” x 60”, or 9 (3x3) 20” blocks. I used 5” squares to make the half-square triangles and trimmed to 4 1/2” unfinished.
the Star Wars fabric is by Eugene Textiles for Camelot Cottons. The center of the crowns comes from this panel: I worked the panel pieces into a snowball block that finished into a 12” block.
There are only 8 characters, so I took Leia and Obi Wan from one of the companion fabrics. By the way, what’s up with no Leia in the panel? jeesh! Yo – Star Wars marketing team – girls like Star Wars, too!!!
I ordered most of the Star Wars fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop. There’s some available at eQuilter, too. The solids all came from (my favorite) Hawthorne Threads. They are a mix of Free Spirit Designer Solids, Pat Bravo Pure Elements and just a few from Michael Miller Cotton Couture. I especially like the Free Spirit and Pure Elements.
The grey is Free Spirit “Manatee” which has a sheen to it and is very silky and floaty. I know we’re all supposed to be in love with Kona, but I’m in search of solids that aren’t as stiff. not that Kona is terribly stiff, but the Free Spirit and Pat Bravo fabrics have the nicest hand and they drape so beautifully, plus the color seems more saturated than Kona. I’ve worked with Moda’s Bellas too, which also are silkier than Kona, but they have a tendency to get caught up in my machine at the start of a seam, which is a drag when making tons of HSTs. maybe the Free Spirit and Pure Elements have more sizing? not sure, but they were very easy to work with.
Manatee is a medium-dark grey with a brown undertone. The solid colors look great against it, but I’m curious about Pat Bravo’s Moonstone, which seems like it might have more of a blue undertone. Moonstone was being reordered when I placed my Hawthorne Threads order and I was too impatient to wait, so I went with Manatee and don’t regret it. (Though “Moonstone” is more fitting for the quilt theme – don’t think that didn’t bother me!) This quilt is a little different for me. I love prints so much and solids seem so boring when placing an online order, but I am trying to use them more.
I love the way they work in this quilt! I’ve been finding with my scrappy patchwork projects that if I can throw in some solids, the overall quilt is more pleasant. less busy. I just wish I had color cards for all the solid collections out there. they’re so awesome to have, but I hate to spend my fabric allowance on them. I also probably should’ve asked for Hawthorne to label the fabrics before sending to me. oops. next time…
trying to take pictures in the snow with a teen who has better things to do is always interesting. then we had this guy watching us. He wasn’t too sure what we were doing and started barking at us, running towards us and then running away. I could go into this whole diatribe about dog owners letting their dogs off-leash in the park, but this guy made me laugh today, so I won’t. I was able to coax him over for a little scritch-scratch, but only after folding up the quilt top. guess he doesn’t have a quilter in his house!