UPCOMING: VINTAGE FRIENDSHIP STARS QUILT ALONG

INSPIRATION

One of my all time favorite activities is to search flea markets and vintage shops for old quilts “in need of rescue”. Sometimes it is the ones that everyone else overlooks, that seem to catch my eye. Often they are in tatters and falling apart, certainly not in good shape. But there is something about some of those aged and well loved quilts that really speak to me and they really inspire my quilty design brain.

The moment I saw this denim star quilt, I knew that it would find its way to me and that I would try to recreate it in some way. The minute I showed it to our sewing group, I could tell by their enthusiasm that we would do it for a SEW ALONG and the name FRIENDSHIP STARS seemed to be a perfect fit. You guessed it is a quilt full of stars of a sort 🙂

For those of you asking about the quilt, it is still a mystery at this point. I will reveal it right before the SEW ALONG starts in the beginning of April.

The SEW ALONG will require the FRIENDSHIP STARS pattern sheet [it will cost $6] and two sets of fabrics as noted below. Nothing else other than a border will be needed for the quilt top. If you don’t like mysteries, please feel free to wait until the quilt is revealed to make your decision. For the rest of us, here is the info you will need.

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QUILT ALONG: Coming in April

We will be working on the VINTAGE FRIENDSHIP STARS sew along throughout the month of April and we will have more info about that soon, closer to the start we will announce how we will break it down, etc. (at the end of March).

For now I wanted to make sure that everyone who was asking, had their fabric gathering information.

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FABRIC REQUIREMENTS

The VINTAGE FRIENDSHIP STARS PATTERN SHEET will be available for purchase as we start the project the first week of April! For now, we do have fabric requirements available to help you start thinking…

For the quilt, you will need:

• (16) ¼ yards of your FEATURE COLOR in small prints and geometrics
• (12) ¼ yards low volume creams in a variety of cream tones [for maximum success]

You will also need:

• ¾ yd. of your FEATURE COLOR for outer borders, ½ yd for binding and 3 ¾ yds. for backing.

Staying true to the vintage quilt inspiration, we have a few of us doing quilts in DENIM BLUE, but we also have a quilt sample coming together using Fig Tree-inspired reds, another in French General faded reds and dusty pinks, and another in neutral tans/greys! I sure hope someone picks green because I would love to see it made up in a green colorway!

We cannot wait to show you our pulls once the sew along begins in April.

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COLOR GROUPING/TIPS

To get started, start thinking about your favorite color grouping. Remember that this will be the MAIN COLOR of the entire quilt and the creams will be the accents. Choose your favorite color and start pulling from your stash or look to see what bundles we might have. So far we have curated the DENIM to match the vintage quilt itself [UPDATE: now sold out]!

In the upcoming weeks we will try to pull starter bundles for reds and perhaps greens if we have enough fabrics. Here’s a few “idea pull” pictures to get you started thinking…[UPDATE: red and green “starter” bundles are IN THE SHOP NOW while supply lasts!]

The most important thing you want to think about in terms of color choices:

• COLORS: Small prints, geometric prints, small stripes, dots, etc. No large prints and nothing with another color in it. You want to make sure that you have a variety of tones of the same color. So for example for the red bundle, they can’t be all Figgy red prints even if I love them so much :-). I mixed in some Magic Dot by Lella Boutique and some older Minick & Simpson and Bunny Hill brick reds. The variation of tone is really important in this quilt to get the vintage effect we are going for.

• CREAMS: Similarly here you will want to make sure that your cream prints are truly low volume, soft and tone on tone prints. Nothing strong or big. Here it is also important that the tones range from ivory to cream and every different tone of off white will be helpful for that scrappy vintage vibe. See below for a good example of what kinds of prints to pull from your stash.

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BUNDLES IN THE SHOP

We’ve got some creamy, low volume bundles IN THE SHOP NOW. This is a perfect set of blender prints for any project really, but we created it specifically for this quilt along. It’s filled with soft prints from a variety of collections and designers…this is a low volume bundle that I will be adding into my own stash!

Bundle includes (12) ¼ yd. cuts of MODA [3 yards of fabric] cream and ivory and tone-on-tone prints, which is exactly what’s needed for this sew along project.

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We’ve also added a few “starter bundles” for our most popular colorway IN THE SHOP NOW [UPDATE: now sold out]. This bundle includes (13) ¼ yd. cuts of MODA denim and blue prints. REMINDER: This is a STARTER BUNDLE and you will need to add in at least another (3) ¼ yds from your stash!

We will try to add other colors as we have them, but feel free to start looking for ideas in your stash. Keep checking the main page of the FIG TREE SHOP for updates on starter bundles in varying colorways.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments!

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Happy Sewing!

-Joanna