Fossil Fern Week: Day 1

What can I say? These Fossil Ferns by Patricia Campbell have been a mainstay for blenders in my stash for almost 20 years. Here is the first box ever sent: 100 fat quarters (minus several I had already sewn with).

Fossil Ferns

The very first project I made for Benartex using Fossil Ferns was my Royal Star quilt. I was Special Projects Editor for Quilt Magazine at the time and fabric companies had begun sending us their fabrics and asking us to come up with something! I received a bundle in the late 1990s. I can still remember standing in my sewing/laundry room in Silver Spring, Maryland and thinking: What can I do with these GORGEOUS fabrics?

Traditional quilt patterns have always inspired me. I took the vintage Royal Star block, changed out the center 9-Patch to rotary cut 2-1/2" squares and converted the corners to paper piecing! I sewed until I ran out of the small bundle of Fossil Ferns.

Ready to stitch a Royal Star block

That center is a 9 Patch that measures 6" finished. But, it's on the diagonal. I drafted the corners to fit perfectly with that center. The block finishes to approximately 8-1/2".

Ready for the corners to be joined to the center

Joined! No hand piecing or templates here. And will you look at those awesome sharp points!

Finished block with seams

And one more block in pinks:

Single Royal Star block

And my "famous" Royal Star quilt. It has been on a magazine cover TWICE and was the cover of my first book: Bold, Black and Beautiful.

Royal Star quilt as it appeared in Quilt Magazine

16 Block Royal Star

Don't you just love how the Fossil Ferns make these stars shine? The sashings and corner stones create the illusion that the stars are floating. But it's an optical illusion! The sashing is 3 strips: Black-Color-Black. That's the trick!

Single Royal Star block with triple sashing

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Royal Star quilt. You can find the pattern in my Etsy shop.

Come back for Day 2 with another project made with these gorgeous Fossil Ferns.