For our Lemonade release grand finale we are finally bringing you our Cover Girl, in all of her minty, pinky, springy goodness. I mean, just look at her. YUM!
Before we dive fully in, make sure you've caught up on the rest of the Lemonade release blog posts:
- Meet Our New Pattern - Lemonade
- Lemonade Quilt - the Scrappy one
- Lemonade Quilt - the Raspberry Lemonade one
And grab your Lemonade PDF here!
Okay, let's go!
Curating a cover quilt palette is always a balancing act of finding the perfect combination of something new and fresh while still maintaining the TCJ aesthetic. We want people to be able to immediately recognize what we are creating as a TCJ make, yet still be excited by something new. And because we knew we were naming this new pattern Lemonade, we knew we wanted the cover to be a nod to citrus colors, but not read super traditional.
So, we landed here. Twelve FQs ranging in golds and corals to pinks and peaches for the Star Points 1 and 2 and eight HYs in greens and teals for the Backgrounds. The background fabrics for this pattern will always be made using Half Yards or scraps. This is intentional to create the depth and sparkle effect intended for this design.
This version of Lemonade - Medium Throw Size with Precuts - works best if you keep like fabrics with like as you cut. We'll play mix + match in a second, but as you make your way through your fabric stack, keep all the same fabrics together as we have done above.
Okay, NOW it is time to play mix + match! First, start by laying out your Star Point 1 fabrics (the bottom squares). Then, pair them each with a set of Star Point 2 fabrics (the top squares).
Finally, add your Background fabrics, ensuring that you choose a different fabric for your framing strips than you did for your squares. And, ta da! Each pile you see above will become a Lemonade Block! Let's take a closer look at how.
Gather your block pile...
...mark your HSTs and pair them up with their buddies. Meghan and I had different strategies for this, but you can see above she laid out her BGs, and her unmarked Star Point 2 squares, then matched up the marked Star Point 2 squares with 2 of the BG squares and then her marked Star Point 1 squares with the rest of the unmarked squares.
Now stitch the HSTs. Cut and press.
Layout the trimmed HSTs and the BG squares, mindful of the pinwheel of your inner squares...
...stitch!...
...stitch again!
And then the Background border sashing.
Done! Wanna see some of our favorite blocks? Okay, we'll show you!
Okay, so I guess by some of our favorites I actually meant they were all our favorites. How could we possibly choose??
After their photo shoot, these girlies went back on the design wall to decide their final placement, and then the whole top got sewed together. We like to sew this top in rows, and then press the seams in alternate directions so that they will nest in their final construction.
Let's take an eyeball break here so I can tell you that we sent this sweet springy lady off to Emily at So Sunny Quilts for her long arming. She was backed in Bella Little Boy Blue, and Emily used a fantastic neon thread to quilt the Golden Eye panto into her. We used scraps from the backing fabric to bind her. Okay, break's over...wanna see?
Okay, that was a tease. NOW, are you ready?
And there she is, our pretty, pretty Cover Girl. To close out, we have one last piece of eye candy to share.
When the scraps are too pretty to throw away.
Happy sewing!