Aurora and Sunset Blog Hop

Welcome to the last day on the Aurora and Sunset blog hop! Have you been enjoying all the beautiful projects my fellow Certified Instructors shared? I'm excited to share my project with you. 

These two collections were originally created to be one line that was a muted rainbow, but as Studio 180 picked the fabrics, a warm and cool palette began to emerge. Aurora is greens, purples, and blues. Sunset is pinks, purples, oranges, and reds.

We were challenged to pick a BlockBuster and make one block in each collection. We could also make a third block that combined both lines of fabrics, which is what I chose to do. I love the fabrics that I was given!

Aurora                                Sunset                        Both Collections

I knew immediately that I wanted to work with BlockBuster #104 Flaring Glimmer. This fantastic block uses the Blazing Lemoynes and Stacked Squares technique sheets, along with Corner Beams. I used my Rapid Fire® Lemoyne Star, Tucker Trimmer®, Square Squared®, and Corner Beam® tools along with my First Choice™ rulers to make my blocks. 

One of the first things I do when I'm making a BlockBuster is break out my colored pencils. It helps me plan where I want my colors to go in my blocks. 

I started by making my Corner Beam units. I've seen a lot of ways to make these units, but this tool is definitely the easiest and most precise. 

When all three colors are next to each other, you can see how well these collections work together. 

Then I took out my Square Squared tool and Stacked Squares technique sheet to make the economy block that is the center of each block. 

Start with first round of triangles stitched to the precision cut square and trim it down using Part A of the tool. When you go to add the second round of triangles, stitch with the pieced square on top. This way you can see where your needle hits as you stitch, allowing you to keep your points. 

Trim the second round of triangles using Part B of the tool. 

All three together are so pretty!

For the final units I took out my Lemoyne Star and Tucker Trimmer tools along with my First Choice rulers and my Blazing Lemoynes technique sheet. I started by stitching together my diamond fabrics and sub-cutting sections from the strip sets. I like to set the 45° angle using my Lemoyne Star tool and then use the 45° line on my First Choice ruler to keep the cuts perfect as I sub-cut sections from the strips. 

When making Blazing Lemoynes following the steps for marking and pinning the diamonds makes a huge difference in getting a perfect center point! Don't skip that step. You'll be much happier with how your blocks turn out. I made 6" finished Blazing Lemoynes which meant I could cut my squares for my triangles in half using the 1/4" line on my First Choice ruler. 

Before adding the triangles you need to trim the diamond point that will get the triangles added. 

At this point it's very important to make sure you are making A and B units that have the background triangles and the colored triangles. This allows the secondary pattern in the block to come out. I trim the dog ear on the units before I add the second triangle to reduce bulk. 

Then I trimmed my units to size. 

I then made mirror image pairs of units.

Before I could put the final blocks together I had to trim down the Lemoyne Star quarters. I did this with my Tucker Trimmer. They needed to be trimmed down to 3 1/2", or half the size of the original block I was making. First I trimmed the dog ears, and then the outer two sides. 

The colors are all gorgeous!

Now I could begin to sew my blocks together. I laid them all out to make sure I had all of the units oriented correctly. 

If you make this block you have to stitch the Blazing Lemoynes units together first. Correct placement at this point makes a world of difference. Then you can sew the block together as a traditional nine patch. 

I love the way the blocks turned out!

I decided to make a table runner from the three blocks. I used one of the blues as the sashing and borders. I chose a simple loopy pantograph for the quilting. Fabrics always look best in natural light, so I went down to the greenway near my house to get some glamour shots. 

 

 

If you want to make your own version of Flaring Glimmer you can download your free copy here: Flaring Glimmer 

I will be teaching classes this fall and in January that feature these fabrics. Both Nautical Dreams and Ebb and Flow. I teach my classes live over Zoom so you can sew from the comfort of your own sewing space. Message me to find out when classes start!

And that's it for the Aurora and Sunset blog hop! You can stop by the blogs of my fellow CIs to see the projects they made for the blog hop. 

 

If you want to see some more of the projects I'm working on along with when I announce classes, follow me on Facebook and Instagram.