Bellingham Bay Blog Hop – Day 3

Look at these beautiful greens with just a touch of purple; doesn’t it just scream Hunter’s Star… that’s what I thought. So when the Studio 180 Design team offered us Certified Instructors a chance to design a quilt using the Rapid Fire Hunter’s Star tool along with another tool and make it with this beautiful woodsy colored fabric, I was all in. In fact, I may have gotten a bit carried away with submissions using my EQ8 program, but it was fun with so many possibilities!

I chose to combine the Large Hunter’s Star with the original Corner Pop tool. I started by making a typical Hunter’s Star block. You can see part of the process below. What I love about the Studio 180 tools is, you make blocks bigger then trim them down. It always leads to a professional looking block with your points all in tact.

Then I chose to pop off the triangle sections.

When I put the blocks together, paths developed reminding me of walking through the woods. Therefore, I’m naming this quilt “Woodsy Trails”.

I wanted the new triangle pieces to be the same width as the starts so it would smoothly transition into the stars. That wasn’t hard to do with the Corner Pop tool: all the math is done for you. I only needed to know what the final size was and follow the directions for the finished size; it turned just right!

Quilting is always one of my favorite steps in making a quilt. It’s like putting on the final touch, frosting on a cake, a necklace to complete your outfit.

Bellingham Bay, the first original collection with Island Batik fabric designed by Studio 180 Design, is on its way to quilt shops now. Be sure to read Deb Tucker’s Blog post to learn about the design process, and check out the other Certified Instructor’s Blog posts to see what they came up with.

• Tuesday November 9th, Terrie Welch of Quilter’s Journey
• Wednesday November 10th, Gail Renna of Quilt Haven Threads
• Thursday November 11th, Beth Sidley of Tucker University
• Friday November 12th, Tina Dillard of Quilting Affection Designs

I have had the privilege of making two quilts with this gorgeous fabric. The first was Higher Ground, one of Studio 180 Design’s new line of patterns, Simply180. Ask your local quilt shop for the pattern or order it from Studio 180 Design.