Miss Mustard Seed Memory Star Quilt

Yes that is a bit of a mouthful for a quilt title!

Today I am taking part in an ‘instagram tour’, this is like a blog hop but on Instagram.  But because I still like to tell my ‘quilt stories’ over here, where there is more room, I am blog posting too.

Miss Mustard Seed is an interiors and DIY guru phenomenon who has the most beautiful IG feed and lots of fantastic stuff on her blog. She already has her own paint range and now she has her own fabric line, Bunnies, Birds and Blooms courtesy of Free Spirit Fabrics!

Free Spirit sent me that beautiful bundle of fabric to play with and are organising this Instagram tour to celebrate the new fabric line. I am the third stop following on from Miss Mustard Seed herself and the amazing Amanda, Material Girl Quilts, who shared a beautiful ‘star within a star’ quilt pattern. Here is the full schedule:

Miss Mustard Seed, April 5
Material Girl Quilts, April 12
My Bear Paw, April 19
Kitchen Table Quilting, April 26
Fat Quarter Shop, May 3
Lish Dorset, May 10
I’m A Ginger Monkey, May 17
Daisy and Jack, May 24
She Quilts A Lot, May 31

I love the soft subtle shades and small prints in this line (especially the bunnies!) and I think it sits right in the centre of the traditional and modern aesthetics which makes it very versatile. Free Spirit sent me so much fabric that I realised I had more than enough for a whole quilt.

I decided I wanted to make large star blocks, which meant a large centre square (6 inches).  For a while now I have wanted to do a sort of memory or friendship quilt where you use bits and pieces of embroidery alongside patchwork.  I have a large collection of vintage embroidered linen that I haven’t used for a while so I thought I’d use some of these.  Then I had a dig around amongst my orphan blocks and found some cute bits and pieces, like the birdhouse (left over from my A Month in the Country BOM) and the appliqued blue tit that I made as a class sample for the same quilt’s recent evening course.

Lastly I dug out some beautiful embroidered linens that I had saved from sample books from when we did Interior Design at our old shop. These seemed appropriate for the fabric designer!

The blocks were quick to make and I also included one block with a log cabin centre. I even created a little GIF video from photos I took as I made it – a very brave use of technology for me! You can hopefully watch it over on Instagram (if I can get it to work there!).

I was planning to use the images for a block tutorial over here but I have run out of time this week (I am off to the Quilter’s Guild AGM later today to teach my Feather Quilt Workshop!).  Let me know in a comment if you’d be interested in one and I will see what the demand is 🙂

Another new thing that I tackled with this project was straight line quilting on my new Janome 9400 machine.  I am pleased to say that it worked like a dream!  I’m really pleased with the outcome.

I used a beige Aurifil 50wt for the quilting, and the backing is this delicate print by Riley Blake (a few years old now) with little prancing deers. The sashing is Kona Natural.

I still need a bit more practice at quilting in straight lines, it’s so much easier for me to FMQ!

I’m thinking about making this quilt my new sofa quilt as it goes so well in my living room.  Or I may give it away, though It’s a bit special now due to all those ‘memories’. I actually think it looks fabulous draped over my cream garden bench!

I still had quite a bit of the gorgeous fabric left so I’ve decided to share the love and host a wee giveaway on Instagram later on today. Head over here to enter!