Pineapples and Paris Star quilt

It's been sew sew sew at my house! These projects each have a lot of seams and used up a lot of thread. Completely worth it though because they turned out really nicely. 

My first project used the new Bird Pond collection in Blue and Teal by Tilda. I made two sizes of pineapple blocks for a 20" cushion front (which I did make into a cushion but I don't have a picture of the finish!). I chose to fussy cut the gorgeous Anemone print for the centre of the largest block and for the corner squares.

Surrounded by smaller blocks like this, it looks like ripples on a pond. The blocks were made using the Creative Grids Pineapple Trim Tool, both the larger (for the 10" centre block) and mini version (for the eight 5" blocks). It makes it so easy to create really accurate, straight seams for what is otherwise a fiddly block. Someone messaged the show to ask if you could foundation paper piece these blocks, of course you can and a quick google search showed up plenty of free patterns you can use. Personally I prefer using the tools, it really is so simple once you get in the swing of it - just be sure to follow the instructions! I have made errors myself though those blocks still turned out nicely, they just weren't pineapples! I also think this is a brilliant way to use up scraps and like that you can create so many different layouts playing with fabric placement. You can see my 'mistake' blocks and another version of the block I made during the demo, video at the end of this post.

My other project is a quilt top made using the fabulous Paris Star pattern by Lynne Goldsworthy. This is such a stunning design and Lynne's instructions are excellent as always. I really like those half stars and the way they disappear into the border. It's a fairly big quilt finishing at 70" but the piecing isn't complicated. 

Here is lovely Vicki (and her beautiful princess hair) with a ta da moment after director Tim did a great job of hanging the quilt top in the studio. Not as easy when it's a flimsy that's larger than the angled wall!

There are lots of points to match while making these stars but I showed a couple of tips during the demo that should help. The four blocks that make up the quilt come together fairly quickly and the borders are simple, perfect for some fancy quilting if you wanted to. This is definitely one of those designs that looks slightly terrifying but once you've made it you want to make another!

If you'd like to see the demos click below - the Pineapple cushion starts at 1:05:00 and the Paris Star starts at 3:04:00 - you could watch the whole show and see Becky Alexander Frost demo bag making!