Orchard Stars is the newest Then Came June pattern! This entire creative process from idea, to design, to sewing, to kits, to marketing has been the most organic and joyful experience yet. Everything flowed beautifully and easily and brought such happiness to the last couple of months. I am thrilled to be able to share this pattern with the world! Let's take a look at the design itself and then I want to give some background as for the inspiration for this design.
The Orchard Stars Quilt Pattern includes SIX sizes: Baby, Small Throw, Large Throw, Double, Queen, and King! And the design includes two different styles - Two Colors and Six Colors. And every style and size includes charts so you can dive into your stash and scraps and use those too!
The design showcases an updated take on two classic blocks - Courthouse Steps and Sawtooth Star. The Courthouse Steps blocks are made from patchwork instead of solid strips and the Sawtooth Star blocks are offset in the design to fits nicely between the Courthouse Steps blocks and add a fun negative space to the design.
The inspiration behind this design is Luke's family's ranch (my husband's fam). It is located in the hills of central California and is pure magic. We've traveled to the ranch almost yearly since Luke and I started dating in 2005. I never feel more settled, solid and alive than when I am there. Here are some photos from past trips over the years so you can see the inspiration.
Hellllloooo gorgeous! The land is over 240 acres total with I believe about 160 acres dedicated to citrus orchards. There is a swimming pond with two small beaches, a rope swing, and a floating dock. The house has the most stunning views of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is heaven on earth.
So now back to the design. The Courthouse Step blocks represent the rows of trees and the negative space where the stars sit represent the sky when you look up between the groves. I really love it. And once I designed it, it was hard to decide which colors to choose for the cover quilt! Here are a ton of options I played with.
We landed on this last mock up and it is so gorgeous in person. This entire quilt top uses Ruby + Bee Solids from Windham Fabrics. The colors are as follows: Lemonade, Vervain, Azalea, Glow, Provence Blue and Field Mouse.
Ruby + Bee Solids are some of my favorite to work with - they are beautifully saturated and have a very soft hand. It makes cutting a breeze too.
The sewing of this design is really fun. You can work block by block or you can batch sections. The pattern gives instructions on how to sew one of each type of block but it is easy to customize your process to fit your flow. And when sewing scrappy, it is a breeze!
The types of blocks required for an Orchard Stars pattern vary depending on the size you choose to make. Some sizes require partial Courthouse Step blocks for the edges and some do not. The Large Throw size requires the partial blocks.
Each quilt size will require both types of Star Blocks - Top and Middle. It is how the stars remain offset in the design.
I mean, these photos are so yummy. I was very pleased with how these blocks were coming together and how much the colors vibrated in front of me! Once all the blocks are assembled, you sew them together in rows.
And suddenly it's all finished! We pinned our rows to make sure our seams nested well. Then we pressed our final seams open.
I was nervous about how the camera would pick up the colors but it captured them perfectly! The field mouse color (the background) is just the softest like brown clay color and it's such a great backdrop to make the other colors sparkle.
It took me a couple weeks to figure out what backing I wanted to use and then BOOM, I remembered we had enough yardage left of the Calico print in yellow from the Bonny line by Denyse Schmidt. It is such a cute vintage small print and the yellow pairs perfectly with the pops of yellow on the front.
Emily of So Sunny Quilts quilted the Florence pantograph into it with bright pink thread. The pantograph is a retro feeling floral design with lots of curved edges. I love how it moves across the quilt. And I decided to bind the quilt in the same blue as the stars - Ruby + Bee Provence Blue. It is the perfect frame.
