Harbinger of Spring & New Pattern Giveway

It isn't too often that I've had to keep a quilt secret from its fabric purchase to its flimsy completion and finally to its fledge.  I am super-excited today to finally get to show you and tell you about it, along with the fledgling pattern designers.

This is my take, which I've called "Harbinger of Spring", on the brand new, released today, first pattern "Star Blossom" of husband and wife team David (Dave the Quilt Engineer) and Tish (Tish's Adventures in Wonderland) Stemple.  I made the baby (or in my case, yoga size) quilt, which uses just one block and then borders.

Pattern designers with pattern tester! It was beyond cool to stop on our way north in Buckhannon near the end of March, and spend some much-valued time with Tish and David and family, as well as show them the quilt in person!

I had a limited amount of time (see below) when I started the flimsy, February 20, made with mainly Kaffe Fassett fabrics I picked up when shopping with Julie in Florida.  I wanted to use Kaffe because David loves him so much (as do I, I'm finding, more and more) but in order to put a little different spin on the pattern, I wanted to do black as the background instead of white.

I also changed the border a bit, adding in a split one before the final floral border so the cornerstone didn't blend into that final floral border.

The top went together in a snap! This is a great pattern for a beginner, as it is comprised of nothing but squares, rectangles and HSTs, but because of this, it makes for a quick pattern for the experienced sewist, as yours truly is, if you need a quick quilt top.

So I was about to go full tilt into the making of and writing up the pattern for Freefall for the QAL.

Bella kept reminding me I had Freefall to do, (see stack under her arm) while ensuring I stayed on task with the Star Blossom pattern test, "No squirrels, Sandra!"

Within 2 weeks of this photo, I, uh, had started Freefall, had finished the flimsy for Tish's pattern, but yeah yeah, had got mesmerized by a squirrel after all, much to Bella's utter disgust.

"Unbelievable, Sandra. You're out of control.  And where's my armrest pile of fabric?"

Personally, I think it's all good (she doesn't; this particular quilt is on the freaking wall, so she can't even lie on it) but I love that Quilter's Laundry Day had scraps from Harbinger of Spring as well as from Freefall!

Okay where were we?

Right.  Harbinger of Spring got folded up and put away for about a month and then, I knew I would be crazy and not able to quilt it once back home, what with the major move we were facing, so I pulled it out and decided to quilt it before we left Florida to come back home. I went through the threads I'd brought with me, and was über-pleased to find I had all the colours I needed.

I knew I wanted dot to dot and a fill of elongated figure eights in the tulip shapes.

More dot to dot and back and forth in the diamond shapes.

And then lines work inside dot to dot for the corner 'blossoms' (I don't have a ruler foot for my Bernina...yet... so these are walking foot and eyeballed FMQ-ed with some wavy lines between.

The above shot shows the little bit daring walking foot quilting (that's an oxymoron IMHO ha) using the purple and yellow threads on the black to emphasize the centre star.  It also shows the beads I FMQ-ed inside the lines for the one border (I love making frames with quilting) and then the cool wavy lines and super-big pebble in a pebble design in that next black border, whose design I am not sure. Judy of Quilt Paradigm showed me it.

Star centre outlined

Finally a design I've always liked but never done on a quilt of mine, piano keys in the final floral border.  No feathers on this one! I know! That's rare for me.

You can see that I did the flanged binding à la Susie's Magic Binding. I change the measurements though, and yes, there is a post coming on that.  Hmm, there are lots of posts coming aren't there. Did I mention I'm hiring for a secretary? LOL

Here is the back.  I snagged this backing and the binding which I just LOVE, at a St. Patrick's Day sale at Alma Sue's Quilt Shop in Sarasota.  I had the quilt with me, and the girl cutting the fabric even said, "Oh! Perfect!" when I said that was what it was for.  She also was dying to get a copy of the pattern, so I do hope she's reading this post, since I did tell her my blog!  I think she and I are kindred spirits on many levels/topics, and I wish we could have arranged to have coffee/tea together...next year!

The quilting shows up pretty decent on the back.

The labels:

One last shot that I had to take on our last beach day before we left.  I had just finished quilting it, but hadn't done the binding at that point. I just knew it would be a pretty amazing photo.  The wind had designs on that photo shoot, but I persevered and captured this:

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Star Blossom by Tish and David Stemple available on Craftsy
Size:  after quilting and washing: 40"
Fabric: Kaffe Fassett, Kona black, Moda marbles in yellow, Summersville Spring by Lucie Summers for Moda; backing is England Swings by Rebekah Merkle for Timeless Treasures, and binding is by George Mendoza for Westminster Fibres
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch (I think; forgot to make a note)
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Essential in yellow and mauve, Sulky rayon in royal blue and Exquisite polyester in black.

GIVEAWAY!
I am giving away a copy of this wonderful pattern which has several sizes, as you see from the photo below of the ones Tish has made:

All you need to do is comment below with the answer to this question:

What colour background would you use to make this quilt? 

Leave me a second comment if you are a follower of my blog (let me know how you follow me, email, bloglovin' or Instagram) for an extra entry.  New followers welcome. I will keep the giveaway open until Sunday night and post the winner on Monday.  Please know that I won't be responding to comments on this post due to the large volume that occurs during giveaways.

Note: Affiliate links follow.
Tish and David's pattern is available for instant download on Craftsy.

If you're bored and have some extra money you want to spend on quilting 'stuff', 😉check out Connecting Threads, for a terrific 30-50% off on select tools, 40-50% off all books, on until June 12, and a fantastic deal on the same thread that I used for the purple and yellow.  It's a pack of 5 "Salt and Pepper" for $11.85! You read that right. These are 1200 yard spools, 100% cotton, size 50/3.

Remember they ship free in the US for orders over $50, free to Canada United Kingdom and Australia for over $75! Sweet. (sidenote: I think Craftsy could do better in their shipping to outside of the US and Canada, just thinkin'...)


Craftsy is having another great sale on all classes, all weekend!  These are member-voted favourites, so you know they have to be terrific! And there's no postage to pay for these, right?!

As always thank you so very much for your support, and if you choose not to, at least choose to support a different affiliate blogger, right?! mwah! 😘

Linking up
Crazy Mom Quilts
TGIFF at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
My Quilt Infatuation