My TCJ Basics Nova Star is done! I love love this quilt. It is probably my most retro looking quilt I've ever made.
A little back story about this quilt and the bundle I used to make it. My TCJ Basics Bundle I curated and worked on at the beginning of the year. The original timeline had the bundle launching early April. I had planned to focus on the bundle launch for early April and then kinda shift to the Nova Star launch at the end of April. Well, COVID happened and the bundle release got pushed. And they ended up being one day apart. Promoting two huge projects at the same time was not my original plan and honestly, it was VERY overwhelming.
I decided last minute to start working on this Nova Star quilt a day or two before my Nova Star Quilt pattern release. That way at least, I could be promoting the new pattern and show how the new bundle looks like in the pattern. And it ended up being one of the most fun quilts to see come to life.
I decided on the Color Explosion design option and used 20 FQs so there is a lot more variety in the quilt itself. And I ended up using most of the FQs in my TCJ Basics Bundle. So let's get started!
As a reminder, that is my bundle! It is colorful, full of texture and highlights some classic fabrics - ginghams, stripes, and linens.
After getting all the fabrics cut, it was time to mix and match! Each little stack of fabric is one block.
I really didn't plan ahead on this mix and match situation. I just made sure that I had no repeating fabrics within each block and I made sure that I had some blocks that were more contrasting and some more muted. It creates a fun depth to each block.
The Nova Star block is more tedious and more pieces than most of my quilt patterns. It is very much a "traditional" block in that sense but I really love how it looks when it comes together.
You can see the shimmer of that really light pink linen at the center star.
Each block really looks so different and adds to that fun retro vintage vibe.
I kept laying down new blocks and adding them to see the quilt grow as I was working on it. And after working on a couple blocks a day, I had all my blocks ready to play around with layout not too long after I started.
Because the blocks rotate 90 degrees, it creates a fun pinwheel design in the corners with the HSTs.
The last choice before sewing all my blocks together with sashing was choosing the cornerstones. I was texting multiple friends asking for opinions and getting my son and husband's opinion. The final choice was a yellow! Keep it bright and happy without being too bold.
I love taking ribbon style photos of chain piecing or quilt tops moving through the machine.
We adventured out to the top of a butte here in Portland to try and get some Quilt in the Wild photos. It was...windy.
I like the photos above but the light and wind were driving me crazy. I couldn't get the exact look I wanted so of course we drove around aimlessly until I found a yellow wall. My boys are so patient with me! haha
I sent this quilt off to Knot + Thread Designs for long arm quilting. I wanted a fun retro vibe pantograph and we settled on this fun flower one.
I bound the quilt scrappy with left over fabric from the bundle. It added to the fun picnic retro style I was shooting for.
