BQF: Lone Star Dahlia

Hello and welcome to my little slice of heaven, Blue Bird Sews. I'm Kelly and I quilt, sew and garden all the while sharing with you along the way. Thanks for popping over from the amazingly ginormous Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. (and if you're here for voting...a big thanks! I'm number #144 -  it's so hard to keep track!)

This is the biggest quilting link party around and it's so fun to visit new places and see inspiring quilts from all over the world. I am so happy to have you here and share one of my quilt finishes of this year: Lone Star Dahlia wall hanging.

I worked on this relatively little quilt for a few weeks; many, many naps times later this is what I ended up with. Little isn't necessarily fast in quilt land is it! 

This quilt started with a Lone Star pattern, but turned into something so much more. I wanted to try out the pattern and audition colors for a quilt for my bed. I am still undecided as if this will be 'the one' but I am sure glad I tried it out on a small scale before attempted 7x7 rows of diamonds! They are tricky to get just right.

The colors I used were from all different fabric lines and it was really fun mixing and matching shades until I had the perfect set for me. I most enjoy the way the sage green and butter yellow play nice with the bold orange and blue. An unexpected outcome to begin with.  

Yellow: Ocher Kona

Green: #102 Moda

Light Grey: Coal Kona

Dark Grey: Charcoal Kona

Orange: #80 Moda

Blue: Mari Michael Miller Cotton Couture

Red: Cran Michael Miller Cotton Couture

Purple: Berry Kona

The quilting pattern came rather organically. I had a plan for straight line quilting the back ground with small lines and then decided to take it to the next level and make it all diamonds. The swirls in the center remind me of the center of a flower with petals on the perimeter. I used coordinating thread for the central flower and a mix of grey, white and black for the background. On my bobbin was a grey the whole time to give me a solid look on the back. 

This whole quilt pushed my comfort zone. First time working with diamonds; which gets easier as you go (just make sure the seam ripper is near by!). First time just winging it from start to finish not really knowing what this quilt was going to look like in the end. Pushing myself was rewarding...I am really happy with it!

The back is the left over scraps, i just love the row of diamonds, that is my favorite! The quilting looks as cool from the back as from the front. I only wished I'd kept the back solid as to really show off the quilting. Oh, well - another lesson learned along the way. 

Thanks again for stopping by feel free to poke around the blog and see what I've been up to! I hope you liked my quilt journey and enjoy the rest of the festival!

Cheers!
Kelly