Our newest pattern Lemonade is out now!
Today I am going to share how this design came to be, what inspired me, what I made first and the design decisions behind the pattern. First let's talk about how this design came to be!
When I was stripping everything back with my business mid-2025, the only thing that ever excited me or felt in line with my insides was using my stash and scraps. And I have continued to nurture this type of sewing and wanted to continue to make it a highlight as we entered the new year. So I have declared 2026 my year of scraps + stash! Now, don’t get me wrong, I will still be using yardage and new fabrics. But, instead of only creating only 1 or 2 scrappy quilts a year, I am shooting to make around half of my quilts this year with my stash + scraps. I want using what I have on hand to be the main director of what I make and what I design.
And to help me focus on this new joy, I rearranged our whole sewing area and a bit of our office to encourage it! I cleaned off this entire bench area and took down all the finished quilts that hung from bows. Now, all my finished quilt tops that need quilting are displayed and are a visual reminder to help that project! And, it also left me some space to add a small baby design wall behind where I sew. I hope to use this wall as my in-process scrappy sewing area. We will continue to use the larger design wall for my bigger projects and more pattern focused creations.
{Side note, before anyone asks: My design walls are just sheets of batting hung up. The larger design wall is a Twin Size piece that is 72” x 90” and now my smaller design wall is a Baby Size piece that is 48” x 60”.}
We also were able to move a Kallax storage unit out of the office and into our sewing area to hold our scraps! Originally my scraps were stored in 4 overflowing baskets hidden away in my personal fabric storage cabinets in the office. I was able to find 4 more baskets around the studio and sorted them into 8 color families. From left to right, top to bottom it goes:
reds/brown, pinks/purples, golds/peaches, yellows, neutrals, indigos, blues, greens
Now as you can see, some bins are still overflowing and there is a lot of wasted space in the individual cubbies. I think I am going to go get some see through baskets from IKEA that fit these specific cabinets that will allow me to store more fabric, move it around a bit in the bin and see it visually. But this refresh felt so good, and I could not wait to get into those bins and start creating.
Now that my sewing space was refreshed I had time and energy to really be inspired to work with my scraps. I started getting TONS of ideas flying around in my head. Ideas for creativity, for designs, for quilts, for projects and more. And I did a big brain dump and I realized I want to also try new classic blocks this year I hadn’t ever made before. So I now have a running list and I will keep adding to it as I find inspiration.
The first block I tried was...drum roll....the Lemon Star! Or, some call it a Lemoyne Star! You can make it a few different ways (2 colors, 3 colors or scrappy) but it requires 12 HSTs and 4 squares to be the star corners. I decided to still focus on 3 colors but using my scraps so it will end up being scrappy within that. I didn’t really have a plan when I started but I wanted to make a few blocks to wrap my head around the idea.
In this first tester sample, I am treating the background as the scrappiest part, and I'm playing in blues/purple tones. The star is then made up of 2 other colors, one being the green family and one being a gold/peach family. Other than that, I didn't make any rules!
I also did my own math and I was trying to make a 9” finished block but I ended up designing a 7.5” finished block. LOL I was immediately using my new bin organization and it made me very happy!
Now, before I go any further into this Scrappy Lemonade Quilt (it will get its own blog post), let's fast forward. I made a few blocks, and I really fell in love with this idea. I continued to work through my stash and cut maybe enough squares for about 5-10 blocks at a time. Originally, I thought I'd make 49 blocks and make it a square quilt. But as I got closer to that point, it didn't feel right. I felt like two things were missing. 1. Something element from the design itself, something to make the stars stand out more and make the blocks a little bigger. And 2. It was starting to feel like a rectangle shape would be best for a pattern, so I needed to make more blocks.
At this point in the make, I hadn't written a pattern, only information for one scrap block. But I was having so much fun working on this quilt. It was incredibly satisfying and it was exactly what I needed. I knew I had to write the pattern, but I wanted my enjoyment to dictate what I wrote, not fabric requirements or deadlines or anything about "what I should do". So I decided, if I can figure out the two things missing things from above, and figure out how to make it precut friendly, then I would write the pattern. I was still honoring my need to work and create with my scraps/stash for 2026 by writing a pattern that can be 100% scrappy.
The biggest material requirement decision I had to make was about the background fabric. I think a HUGE part of the Lemonade design that feels like me and a true TCJ design is that it is NOT made with one fabric. The only option I provide is to use Half Yards so that the background must be varied. It's an incredibly important design choice to create the movement I wanted, the depth I wanted and to add the Star Frames to each block. Now, you can of course make it with all scraps if you want, as I did in my tester sample, and this pattern provides charts throughout for sewing scrappy.
Okay, you've made it this far! Let's talk specifics now about the pattern!
Lemonade is Advanced Beginner friendly, includes 5 sizes, 3 design options and includes scrap charts for every cut needed! The pattern also includes links to Coloring Pages, Inspiration Mock-ups, a Color Swatch Cheat Sheet and a Single Block Diagram for staying organized.
This pattern is a pick and choose adventure when it comes to Material Requirements.
For Star Points 1 and 2, you choose ONE cut (F8, QY, FQ or yardage) each. You can mix and match however you'd like. Star Point 1 could be made from scraps and Star Point 2 could be made from FQs, etc. The Background fabrics will always be Half Yards and they provide the cuts for the background of the stars and the star frames.
I made a few diagrams to show you possible combinations for each design option.
Using 100% scraps will of course get you the scrappiest looking quilt. But it's also easy to explain that the smaller the precut, the scrappier the final look. I thought I'd show you the basic options when using the same palette and same background fabrics below.
The Lemonade Blocks are easy ones to jump in and out of once your fabrics are organized. They aren't hard but they can be a bit tedious with the HST trimming. Alysson and I found a flow that was different from each other. I prefer to work one block at a time or do the same thing for like 8 blocks at a time. Where Alysson likes to work in a rotating/evolving system so she may be working on 3 blocks at one but all at different steps in the process. You do you!
We made three samples of Lemonade. Each sample will get their own blogpost but for now let's do a few sneak peeks!
The Scrappy One - 100% Scraps from my personal stash that is the Medium Throw size.
Our second sample is our Raspberry Lemonade one. This one started with a general mock up for color ideas but then I decided I wanted to use some prints in it. This one is the Large Throw with Star Point 1 using FQs, Star Point 2 using yardage and the Background from a mix of pinks and purples with a few low volume fabrics.
Our last Lemonade sample is our Cover Quilt! This one also finishes in a Medium Throw and uses FQs for both Star Point 1 and 2 and HYs for the background. This is 100% Moda Bella Solids and is our beautiful cover girl.
We have the Lemonade pattern uploaded into Prequilt so you can play with your own ideas!
I can't wait to come back and share more in depth about each sample! Stay tuned.
Happy sewing and don't forget to grab the Lemonade pattern, available now!
