You know, one of the things I love most about the online quilting community is getting to know amazing quilters. When one of my virtual quilting friends writes a book, of course I want to tell you about it. 🙂
Meet Amy Garro, the brilliant designer behind the book Paper Pieced Modern. (Remember, Amy was also the one who started the Quilty Little Secrets blog meme which made its rounds in blog-land awhile back).
Although all 13 designs from the book are fabulous, today I get to focus on one specific quilt, Apple Stars. Isn’t it stunning?
Apple Stars Quilt 50″ x 50″ by Amy Garro. Photography by C&T Publishing.
The blocks are a generous 14″ x 14″ and I love how they float on the background. That’s a great design aesthetic because you don’t have to stress about chopping off your points when piecing!
Here’s what Amy had to say about this specific design:
“I had been looking through Nani Iro’s fabrics and when I saw this spotted one, I just knew I had to use it for this project! It’s a double gauze, which I’ve never worked with before. I found it very tricky & shifty. I starched the heck out of it and really benefited from the paper foundations – they stabilized the blocks as I was sewing.”
Image courtesy of C&T
Amy continues,
“The other challenge I ran into with this fabric was the fact that the dots were very sparse along the outer edges of the print. I had to use modified cutting instructions and order extra yardage. I absolutely love how it turned out, but what you probably wouldn’t guess by looking at this quilt is that I spent $100 on just the dotted fabric alone! Crazy!”
Isn’t the quilting scrumptious? It was quilted by Emily Session of Emerson Quilting.
Image courtesy of Amy Garro.
I for one think her efforts were worth it. I love the effect of the white fabric among the dots. Can you just imagine it in other colors? I did, so I jumped on the computer and quickly re-sketched the block in EQ using scrappy Sunprints from Alison Glass.
Wouldn’t this be a great way to use up your colorful scraps?
Be sure to check out the schedule below to see the rest of the quilts from the book. I know Amy is going to QuiltCon (and Apple Stars will be there, too!) so I can’t wait to hunt her down and chat in person. 🙂
- Feb 5th – Lindsay @ Lindsay Sews
- Feb 6th – Charlotte @ Displacement Activity
- Feb 7th – Molli @ Molli Sparkles
- Feb 8th – Elise @ Lovelea Designs
- Feb 9th – Amy guest posting @ C&T Publishing
- Feb 10th – Darcie @ The Seam Allowance
- Feb 11th – Christa @ Christa Quilts — YOU ARE HERE!!
- Feb 12th – Amy guest posting @ Craft Buds
- Feb 13th – Amy @ 13 Spools
- Feb 14th – Chelsea @ Patch the Giraffe
- Feb 15th – Amy @ During Quiet Time
- Feb 16th – Wrap-up post back at 13 Spools
And Now for the Giveaway!
One of my readers will win a copy of Paper Pieced Modern by Amy Garro (hard copy for US addresses, E-copy for international folks). To enter, simply jump through each of the stops on the hop to see of all the quilts from the book.
Then, come back here to tell me which one of the quilts is your favorite! Of course, they haven’t all been revealed at the time of this blog post, so if you want to come back and leave a comment later after you’ve seen them all, that’s great, too!
The giveaway on my blog will remain open through midnight on Monday, February 16th. I’ll draw a winner’s name at random on Tuesday morning.
Christa Quilts 
Faceted Jewels II is my favorite. I’m loving the purple in that quilt!!!
My favorite is Faceted Jewels I! I can’t wit to try it!
HELLO, Love Little Itty Bitties Quilt and Thanks for the chance.
Apple Stars is my favourite so far!!
I’ve been following the blog hop and this is absolutely my favorite so far.
My favorite is Squareburst. I love the bright yellow in the quilt but can imagine it in many other colors as well.
Faceted Jewels II for sure! monique.belmer at gmail dot com
Apple Stars is my favorite so far, but I can’t wait to see what is to come.
I really like squareburst and would enjoy the book
I’ve never done paper piecing before, but this book might be the way to learn. Amy is so talented!
After a very happy hopping I still can say: My absolute favourite quilt is Diamonds and Emeralds II because I LOVE the dark blue with the neon yellow :-)))
Liebe Grüße from Germany,
Kathrin
Faceted Jewels II is my favorite so far, although I really like Squareburst also. Thanks for the chance to win a copy of the book. I am drooling over it! 🙂
My favorite quilt on the blog hop so far has been Squareburst, but I also love the cover quilt, Icy Waters. Thanks for the giveaway!
Squareburst will be first on my list to make. I like the simplicity and the new way it looks.
Icy Water is the first one I want to make…others will follow!!
I’d love to win this for our MQG library. We don’t have any paper piecing books.
Right now it’s a toss up between Squareburst and Faceted Jewels. Amy is such an inspiration!
I like Little Itty Bitties although I really like all of them so far!
Wow, so hard to pick just one. Would love to do the apple stars in blue with a sparkly background and squareburst just makes me smile. Thanks.
Icy Waters! It’s no wonder it’s the cover quilt.
So far I love Squareburst best 🙂
Little Itty Bitties is my favorite
I like Little Itty Bitties. They are all so pretty.
I like Faceted Jewels.
I love the purple Faceted Jewels II! So beautiful!
I love the Little Itty Bitties. And the cover quilt.
So far, Faceted Jewels is my favorite. I like Apple Stars, but with the color as you have pictured it. Thanks for read and the opportunity
The Icy Waters is my favorite of the bunch. I think that quilt is what got me to start following 13 spools.
I rarely say this, but I like almost every quilt enough to want to make it! I am really liking Squareburst…maybe because it’s so bright in dreary winter. Thanks for a chance to win.
The faceted jewels II is my favorite one, but I do like several others.
Hello from Germany!
It’s hard to decide which pattern to choose, but Squareburst is my favourite. I just recently learnt paperpiecing and I like it!
They are all super nice but the scrappy stars look lovely!
mumbird3(at)gmail(dot)com
sweet!
Squareburst is my favorite
I’m pretty bad with names but my fav is still the one on the cover. Such a stellar.
little itty bitties! and I am working on a quilt currently with black and white low volume fabrics so I am saving my scraps to use it it as soon as I get my hands on the book. Cindy/ bluemoonstencils@yahoo.com
I like the scrappy star on this page and the purple quilt on Molli Sparkles page.
I love ‘Squareburst’ and ‘Little Ity Bits’…. and anything with Stars!
Faceted Jewels ll is beautiful, this was a hard decision. I liked most of the quilts in the book.
I love Itty Bitties! 🙂
So far this is my favorite, but I also really love the cover quilt.
LOL picking one is not going to happen. I have to write the name of this book down. I love the Apple Stars and the Sunburst and on Feb 9th @CT Publishing the blue modern star on white background (couldn’t seem to find a name for that one. love it)
These are all wonderful quilts and I would love to win this book!
Squareburst because it looks so simple. Thank you for chance!
I adore the Apple stars. I have a love of paper pieced stars that goes back to the beginning! All of Amy’s projects are amazing and worth the read!
Absolutely love Apple Stars. The variety of ways it can be used is mind boggling. Of course, I look forward to seeing the remaining quilts revealed.
As of today, Apple Stars is DEFINITELYmy favorite
Love paper piecing. Can’t choose just one. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to win this great book.
Favorite is Squareburst! I’d love to try making that one~
favourite quilt has to be Diamonds and Emeralds II