Twilight Chic Blog Hop

​As a Certified Instructor for Studio 180 Design I was asked if I would like to participate in the Island Batik Twilight Chic Blog Hop hosted by Studio 180 Design. Twilight Chic is Deb Tucker’s signature collection for Island Batik designed by Kathy Engle.

The schedule for the entire blog hop is:
Monday, February 4

• Gaggle of Geese Tuffet with Sharyn of The Tuffet Source, here on the Studio 180 Design Blog

Tuesday, February 5

• Jackie O'Brien, If These Threads Could Talk
• Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads

Wednesday, February 6

• Deb Tucker - Twilight Chic Projects

Thursday, February 7

• Jill Seitcheck, Binding Bound
• Bonny Peters, Cat Den Mountain Quilts

Friday, February 8

• Michelle Hiatt, Sew On The Go
• Debby Brown, Debby Brown Quilts

Saturday, February 9

• Karen Overton, the Quilt Rambler
• Tina Dillard, Quilting Affection Designs

 
Since today is Thursday it is my turn so here goes. Since I started quilting in 2012 I have spent a lot of time designing patterns that use five 1-yard cuts. In 2017 I became a Certified Instructor for Studio 180 Design. Since then my design focus has changed to incorporate the Studio 180 Design tools. Today I want to share how I designed the block for my Tumbling Stars quilt.
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Loving the Split Rects tool, I set out to design a block that used that unit. For a square block, I came up with this preliminary sketch.

I decided to put Split Rects in the side rectangles and Flying Geese in the top and bottom positions.

To me this looked like a star that had gotten a little squished – like it had rolled and had its’ star points pushed in. Hmmm, …. Tumbling Stars. I had a name but how could I make it look like it was rolling? Maybe if I put something in the middle on an angle it would have that impact when I rotated the block.

​I liked where this was going. Maybe I needed a center that didn’t move.

Excellent! Just what I was looking for but how was I going to piece the middle? I needed to draw in a few more seam lines.

I did it! I had a block that would appear to roll as I rotated it plus I could make all of the units using my Studio 180 Design tools – Split Rect, Wing Clipper I and Tucker Trimmer I. Each block had 2 Type #1 Split Rects, 2 Type #2 Split Rects, and 2 Flying Geese of the same size, plus 2 smaller Flying Geese, a Shaded 4 Patch and a square.

Next up was fabric selection. The fabrics in the Twilight Chic collection supplemented by some of the Island Batiks basics made that part easy. Island Batik and Studio 180 Design provided the fabric and I got busy.

It took very little time to make all of the components and piece the blocks. My fabric calculation used less than a yard for 4 of the fabrics and about 1-1/8 yard of the background. My goal of creating a pattern that utilize five 1-yard cuts was realized. So here it is – Tumbling Stars.

Finally, there is a giveaway: ​