A New Star Quilt Pattern

Hello there! It’s been a while since I last posted so I thought I’d pop in and say g’day. 

New Star Quilt Pattern Coming

I’m excited to announce that my next pattern, In The Stars, will be released on Thursday.

In The Stars, funnily enough, is a new star quilt pattern and is fat quarter friendly.

I’ve always wanted to create one of those quilt patterns where you cut all parts of the block from fat quarters and then mix them all around to create multi-coloured blocks. Well, this is that pattern.

Each star block has 3 components and they can all be cut from the one fat quarter. However many blocks you need in the quilt is how many FQs you need. Then you can have a whale of a time mixing and matching all your parts to make some really pretty blocks. Shake and serve!

The pattern will have 5 sizes: baby, throw, twin, queen and king.

I’ve sewn up 2 baby quilts (so far) and they each have a very different feel.

One is rather regal and reserved in blue, green and light tan linen. These fabrics were all taken from my stash.

The second quilt is very much a party, sewn with Ruby Star Society basics.

(For those shopping, you can find RSS on Etsy and at the Fat Quarter Shop. In Australia you’ll find a great selection at The Next Stitch.)*

This is a great pattern to help use up your stash. I’m really keen to use up more of my stash as I’ve found my older fabrics are suffering the effects of fading (even though they’ve spent their life in a solid door cupboard). I do believe all fabric has a shelf life and the sooner you can get it into a quilt and living its best life the better!

The backing I used for my green/blue/linen quilt was purchased at an IKEA in France in 2009. It has slight fading along the fold lines, but it still looks fabulous on the back of this quilt. I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to use it!

All is on track for the pattern release on Thursday – I just have to bind the two quilts and then take some beauty shots. I love these wide clips* for machine binding, they’re so good at keeping everything secure and aligned. I have a tutorial for sewing a zigzag stitch machine binding here.

Time to Buy a House

How’s that for a topic change! Hang in there, it will lead back to quilting I promise.

Okay, so it’s a hard time to buy a house right now in most places in the world. The pandemic teamed with high rents and low interest rates means that buying a home is a very attractive option at the moment.

When everyone is trying to buy a house it means the prices are pushed up. We are certainly finding this is the case on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, where we live. Unfortunately our landlord recently told us he’s selling the house from under us so we’re out looking for a new home!

It’s not all doom and gloom – we’re ready to put in the work to find a suitable place and I’m already dreaming of what my new sewing room could look like.

I was asked to contribute a tip to an article on the Redfin blog about creating the ultimate quilting studio. About a week after providing my tip we found out we would need to move, so I’m even more grateful for all the good advice in this blog post! Pop over and see if there are any ideas you can incorporate into your current sewing space situation.

And once we find our new home, you can bet I will be heading over to this article on Porch.com, all about how to decorate a home with crochet, knitting and quilting. I even provided some information for the article – see if you can spot my contribution.

Fun Links

I love a good link – grab a beverage and click through to these interesting reads.

Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl has a new pattern out! I really loved this blog post outlining the method behind her intricate quilting.

Embroidery + beading is always a winner in my book. Check out these gorgeous pieces.

I’ve previously linked to an American artist who puts the perfection in imperfection. Here’s a French artist who similarly sees opportunity in maintenance.

A lot of hard work, but worth it: behind the scenes of a textile artist.

Have you got a link for me? If you’ve sewn a Bonjour Quilts pattern I’d love to feature your beautiful quilt on my website and link back to you. Send your photos in via this page.

Bust Your Stash

Don’t let your fabric languish (or fade like mine) in your stash – get it out of the cupboard and into a quilt. Here are some fun scrap busting quilt patterns I have in my shop.

Mountainside is a fat quarter friendly pattern that works really well as a two-colour quilt with a scrappy feel.

If you have a ton of smaller scraps then you’ll love Scrappy Lattice. You can make it all in one colour or create some single colour lines (vertical, horizontal or diagonal).

Up and Away is another great fat quarter friendly quilt pattern. All you need is a main colour, an accent and a neutral. The pattern instructions cover using both yardage and fat quarters for all 3 parts of this quilt, making it very versatile.

Still looking for more FQ friendly patterns? Maybe you’ll find The Plus Side, Zed, Lollies, Kaleidoscope or Snowball Party helpful in your quest for stash reduction.

See You On Thursday for In The Stars Quilt Pattern

Check back in on Thursday for the launch of my new star quilt pattern In The Stars. I’m sure it will help you get your stash out of the cupboard and into the light!

Until then take care and happy sewing,

Kirsty x

*affiliate links. If you purchase through these thank you so much for supporting Bonjour Quilts. This goes toward paying my website hosting costs.

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