Stars of Peace QAL: Introduction

As some of you may know, 
I come from a military family.

After joining the Coast Guard myself, 

I met and married my husband then

 followed him in his 30 years of service.

We were fortunate to be able to see 

a great deal of the country through 

our moves, learning the history and culture

of many regions.

It was an honor to be a part of the 

Coast Guard and its missions.

As a quilter, I am involved with the 

Quilts of Valor Foundation.

The foundation's mission is an 

important message to those that

serve our country, you are not forgotten,

you are appreciated.

Why a QAL?

As our country prepares to celebrate

250 years as America, I choose

to celebrate through my design work and 

stories about my travels.

I am excited to have you here, 

stitching along!

When and How?

"Stars of Peace" will be available

for sale in my Etsy shop as a full

PDF download on February 1st, 2025.

The applique' templates

are full sized.

The full pattern will be released 

at an introductory

rate of $20 for the first week only

(it will go up to $25 after that).

The pattern will also be

released as a BOM with 

each month posted for sale 

in my Etsy shop.

You will need a pattern to participate.

Techniques will include piecing

and a bit of applique'.

This is a great technique sampler.

The following will be included:

Half-Square Triangle

Quarter-Square Triangle

Flying Geese

Parallelogram.

Of course there will be some

video assists to help the process.

Every month, I will present a block

via a post here, in my newsletter,

and in my FB group, 

Robin's Rocking Needles.

We will be doing all the discussion

and ooohing/aaahing of 

fabric choices in the FB group.

I pride myself on quality (tested)

patterns with full-sized templates

and assembly diagrams.

This is going to be fun!

Lots of posts coming your way 

this week to get us up to speed

on fabrics and supplies so

you will be ready to go

as soon as you get

your pattern!

Please leave a comment if you

have questions or email me

at 

robin@nestlingsbyrobin.com

Thank you:)

HOME

The Autumn issue of Quilter's World

will have my new quilt design

that I started this past January! YAY!

It is so bothersome that I 

have to keep so much secret 

from all my quilting friends

when I am working.

Once the design is planned, 

it is time to go fabric hunting!

As you can see, I wanted a muted

selection of neutrals in 

gray and taupe.

Look at the perfect and gorgeous

Barbara Brackman fabrics 

I found along the way!

Giddiness!

Have you ever tried to pay attention

to what you are doing at a retreat?

~LOL~

I was super fortunate to get to 

attend the annual retreat with my

friends from Illinois since I 

don't always get to go.

As 2020 has turned out, 

I am SO Happy I made

sure I did this year!!

We are missing a couple in 

this photo but we had a 

great time and it made my

"work" go much quicker!

Here is the other thing that made 

my work time happier!!

These FAB fingerless gloves 

from my mother:)

Pretty and functional!

So there was pinning and stitching

for the HSTs...

Lots of mindless chain piecing

for the log cabin blocks....

Once home, hours of 

NCIS reruns got me through:)

Auditioning of which red

fabric to use for the star....

and Voila'....

HOME!

Thank you (AGAIN) to 

Toddy and Ray Sumsky

for a FAB job quilting this

for me in my weirdo, designer

timeline! 

HOME is now out in the 

latest issue of Quilter's World.

I hope you will enjoy making

it as much as I enjoyed designing

it for you to snuggle under

during a chilly winter eve!

And, don't forget your label!!

~Enjoy~

Connecting Threads 'Autumums'

AUTUMUMS is now available in the

Fall Connecting Threads catalog!

This is the Gathering Wishes fabric line and all that

Autumn makes my heart sing:) 

It has been a year long adventure and

I am so happy to be able to share it with you now:)

You can always scroll to the bottom but how about building the anticipation with a quick tutorial on assembly.

Lately I have been cutting my HSTs to the next inch up vs. the 7/8".  This gives me a little wiggle room and an opportunity to trim if necessary.  Sometimes my personal seam allowance brings me right to the measurement I needed.

I have said it before and I will say it again, I am old fashioned and find that I get better results when I work one step at a time.  The blue ruler above is the Quick Quarter ruler (above pic) and I get very good results with it and Mary Ellen's Best Press. Pictured below are some sewn squares that have been sprayed with Best Press.

 Look how nice and crisp they are after and ready to be cut apart!

 Trimmed and ready to go!

 Time for applique....

Sometimes the amount of applique pieces needed can seem overwhelming but if you go to my tutorial, you can cut down your tracing and cutting by a quarter if not more. 

Save this link so that when you buy the pattern,

you will have this to refer back to.

See my CUTTING MULTIPLES TUTORIAL HERE: http://nestlingsbyrobin.blogspot.com/2015/02/tutorial-cutting-multiples-of-fusible.html

I used a small zig zag stitch to applique all

my petals down before assembly.

 

Let's talk quilting....I know it is hard to decide on a design that will accent your applique or fill a large space.  I outlined the flowers and did stitch in the ditch for all the seams (blocks and borders).
The border quilting was finding a leaf shape I liked and adding swirls around it. 
The leaves were alternated right and left and traced to the border.  I then lightly sketched in some vines and smaller swirls to fill the space around them.

I believe you can click on the photo to enlarge it and the side lighting should show the quilting a bit.

Enjoy having a little Autumum in your world as much as I enjoyed designing and making it!