Quiltmaker's Blog Tour

Welcome to everyone dropping by from Quiltmaker's blog tour!  Today (Friday) is my day to be featured on the tour along with many other talented designers who have blocks in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, vol. 3.  Here's the Chained Star block I designed:

Scroll down to the previous two posts to learn more about my block and see it in different colorways.

If you haven't checked out the blog tour, I encourage you to do so.  You'll meet some great designers and get to see some of the creative blocks in volume 3 of 100 Blocks, which should be available in stores next week.  But I have to warn you that once you see these great blocks, you'll want a copy of the magazine!  I know that money is tight for many of us, but getting 100 original block designs for only $6.99 is quite a deal, I think.

If you're feeling lucky, you just might win a copy of the magazine.  The Quiltmaker blog and every designer on the blog tour is having a drawing for a free copy of the magazine.  And Quiltmaker has drawings for other super prizes, too.  Plus, I'm giving away a second copy of the magazine to one of you who comments on  today's topic: What would you most likely put in the center square of my Chained Star block?  A novelty print?  Embroidered block?  Applique block?  Photo transfer?  Hand-painted block?  Something else that I haven't thought of?

On Saturday, I'll post part 1 of the project I'm making with my Chained Star design.

More on My Chained Star Block

I was going through my stash of novelty fabrics for examples that could work with my Chained Star block and, except for the realistic animal prints, they were mostly bright colors.  Maybe living in a rainy climate makes me gravitate toward bright fabrics.

I'll be using a bright print later this week to demonstrate a small project using my Chained Star block, but I want to mention that applique and embroidered blocks also work well as centers for this block.

I've been working on a set of stamped Sunbonnet Sue embroidery blocks for several summers now (I like to work on these while sitting in the sun so I'm making slow progress).  I'm nearly finished with the fourth block and thought about using them with the Chained Star block, but they're 8" squares and I refuse to trim them down to 6" squares!  They'll just have to wait for another block design, but here's what a redwork Chained Star might look like:

And here's what a small redwork quilt might look like, with and without sashing:

Do you see how the stars are "chained" together in this quilt?

For instructions on entering a drawing to win a copy of Quiltmake's 100 Blocks magazine, scroll down to my previous blog post.

My Block and a Free Magazine

This is my block as it appears in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks:

I named it Chained Star - you will understand why when you begin playing with multiplle blocks!

This is one of the blocks I designed to utilize 6.5" charms (unfinished size) of those great novelty and bold floral prints that are so difficult to cut into smaller pieces.  For the block above, I used leftovers from a layer cake pack that were sitting on my sewing table at the time.  It doesn't look anything like the bright colors I usually work with in Electric Quilt when I play with designs!  Below are some computer-generated blocks, in my more usual colors, that show other ways to color this block.

In the bottom two, you can see how the "star" can pretty much vanish when the color placement is changed.  They're all great designs, but I think I like the ones with the prominent star best.  Which do you like best?  Leave a comment to this question for a chance to win a free issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, vol. 3!  On May 7, a lucky winner will be chosen from all who reply.