Sweet as Honey Blog Tour {and a finished quilt!!}

Happy Wednesday!  Today is my day on Bonnie Christine's Sweet as Honey blog tour.  If you are new to my blog, please take a look around, hopefully you will find something you enjoy.  I have a number of tutorials and am currently hosting a fun quilt along :)

Now back to reason for today's post...Bonnie's absolutely gorgeous new fabric line Sweet as Honey by Art Gallery Fabrics.  The colors and prints are just so soothing and beautiful.

I was lucky enough to receive two fat quarters of my choice from the new line so that I could make something to share on the blog tour.  The prints I chose are Orchard Blossom in Autumn and Honeycomb in Nectar, aren't they gorgeous?!  When I saw that floral print, I just knew I had to have it.

  

I paired these two prints with Essex yarn dyed linen in flax from Robert Kaufmann and created this fun quilt block that I'm calling Starflower.

This block finishes at 24" square and I thought that I might create a large cushion cover with it, but instead decided to make a small wall hanging.  I didn't want to lose the outside points on the sides of a pillow :)

As you can see, I quilted the heck out of this one!  I used Aurifil 50 wt. #5011 and echoed the seams in the center star shape every 1/4" to create a radiating star from the center square.  Then I echoed the seams in the in the flying geese blocks on the sides and the corner sections as well.

The amount of texture created by all of those lines is so awesome!!  It was a lot of work, but I have to admit it was well worth it in the end.

Below is a closer look at the center star and you can hopefully see the radiating star design created with the quilting.

Of course as in a lot of dense quilting jobs, the back really highlights the quilting design.  Below you can certainly see the star in the center.

I was hoping to hang this beauty in our living room, but our walls are a light taupe color and there just wasn't enough contrast against the quilt to make it pop.  I love the way it looks against the brick on the back of our house though!  Since I have this same brick on half of the walls in my sewing room, I might have to find a spot for it in there.

Thanks so much for stopping by and don't forget to check out the rest of the blog posts, including Corey of Little Miss Shabby's CRAZY AWESOME honeycomb flower pillow...seriously, you must check it out!!!  And tomorrow my local best quilting buddy Sarah from {no} hats in the house will be sharing her AMAZING quilt!  I kind of hate to be between these two ladies...they make my quilt look like child's play next to their creations :)