Welcome back to Week 5 of the Winter Solstice Sew Along! While I was designing Winter Solstice, the first aspect of the quilt that came to me was the overall setting. I knew I wanted a blue and cream winter quilt with a hint of a Nordic feel and the large and graphic Bear Paw center seemed the perfect starting point. I started sketching ideas, and thought how fun it would be to make each quadrant out of four unique blocks, and then the idea of the large and small blocks came into play.  The final step was the pieced…

Welcome back to the Winter Solstice Sew Along! This week we are sewing our final set of two blocks, Norwegian Star and Orion’s Cluster.  Norwegian Star is an updated version of a classic star block, and would make a fabulous stand-alone quilt…maybe scrappy summer patchwork, or assorted reds and creams for Valentine’s Day?  Orion’s Cluster is the first block I designed for this sew along and I love how the generous overlapping stitch and flips make for crisp star points without extra seams.  I think it adds an extra bit…

Welcome Back Friends! Last week we celebrated the true Winter Solstice.  The moon was a brilliant quarter moon, and the Christmas Star of 2020 shown brightly in the Southwest sky.  The longest day of the year has come and gone with the promise of longer days, and the changing of the seasons. This week’s blocks, Peppermint Star and Snowflake Dance use pinwheels to give the effect of stars twinkling in the night sky.  Don’t let Snowflake Dance intimidate you with all the quarter triangles!  A tip is to lay out your block on a…

Welcome Back Friends! We are so glad you are here, and we are enjoying seeing all of the pictures of Sparkle Dash and Northern lights pop up in our Facebook Group and on Instagram.  Please be sure to tag your post #wintersolsticesewalong and #wintersolsticequilt to make sure we see it!  This week, we will be working on Milky Way and Starburst blocks.  I think both of these blocks go together relatively quickly – perfect for sewing for a few minutes while cookies are in the oven or while waiting for family celebrations to begin. Directions for each block are written…

Hello Friends, Welcome Back! A few notes from Susan… This week we are going to start making blocks for our quilt.  For the next four Fridays we will be introducing two new blocks – one a little easier and one a bit more complex.  To finish off the quilt, you will need to make (2) of each of the blocks. For each block, you will need to pick an ivory print as an accent.  Use a favorite from your bundle or feel free to pull from your stash.  I opted to keep some of the larger prints for some…