Quilting My Pink Pineapple Star

Around the beginning of the pandemic, I planned to get several of my tops quilted at the shop with the long-arm quilting machine. Since they were closed because of Covid-19, I popped this one onto the frame and began to hand quilt it. I don’t know if I’ve shown this one to you before.

Pineapple Star Quilts by Sharon Redroad

I love pineapple quilts and picked up this book some time ago – Pineapple Stars by Sharon Rexroad. It was published in 2005 and I’m not sure when I bought it, probably at least ten years ago. (I’m also not positive that I know where it is now.) I remember that it has clear instructions and lots of inspiration, although I could have read more about contrast and fabric selection before diving into the creation of mine. 🙂

This is the central medallion of mine:

Pineapple star quilt pieced by Deborah Cooke

I squared off the corners and added a border. It’s very bright and I love it.

That floral print is a Kaffe Fassett design called Kimono. By the time I realized I needed big squares of it for the corners, it had been discontinued, so I pieced those blocks. You can see the diagonal line in one big peony this corner where I seamed the two triangles. It’s not an absolute match.

pineapple star quilt made by Deborah Cooke

I started to quilt in the center with lime embroidery thread and worked my way out past that lime hexagon. There are still two corner squares that need their quilting finished.

This past week, I bound the outside edge with self-made bias. I was amazed that I managed to find the dark pink from the middle of the star in my stash.

Here’s how it looks now:

pineapple star quilt made by Deborah Cooke

It’s interesting how the contrast looks different in the photo than in real life. The green star tips don’t fade out of view as much IRL, probably because the lime is more vibrant than it appears here, more like the octagon in the middle.

As I was taking this picture, my dog decided to lie down in that bit of sunbeam. She didn’t settle in, though, so I didn’t get a pic of her there – even with the quilt, the floor is harder than her bed on the other side of the room, but her opportunism made me laugh.

A New Quilt Top

I told you a few weeks ago about the Escher quilt pattern I’d bought, and mentioned that I needed to finish another quilt top before starting that one. Today you get to hear about the quilt in progress. It took me a bit longer than expected because I had to rip back the borders and redo them.

I saw a quilt made in this pattern during the summer (it was red and white) and I thought it was pretty, so I doodled down the pattern. I don’t know the name of the pattern, but here’s my version:Green and purple quilt pieced by Deborah Cooke

It’s just half square blocks sewn into larger blocks. I chose to make the central diamonds in each block darker in the middle section, then also alternated florals and stripes all the way around. On the outside borders, that protocol doesn’t quite hold. 🙂 I sewed the outside blocks on and ran outside to get a picture before the sun was gone, so it still needs a good pressing. It’s a bit more green than it looks here, and it needs another outside border. I think I’ll use that dark blue/green batik that is in the last border before the outside blocks. It’s about 72″ on a side right now.

I like it, and that it ended up with a contrast between stripes and florals. As usual, I was more concerned with pattern than value, and I did let the pattern placement fall randomly, but I still am pleased with the result. Many of the fabrics are Kaffe Fassett fabrics – all of the stripes and many of the florals, too. Those mustard dots and the blue/green batik are rogue. 🙂 Once the borders are on, I’ll need to quilt it.

What do you think?