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Blue Corn Moon
Quiltmaker Judy Martin has been drawn to traditional Lone Star Quilts for decades. Lucky for us, she shares some of her time-tested techniques for success in this traditional-made-modern quilt pattern so you can make this visually striking quilt for yourself. With plenty of diagrams to show you how to sew strip sets, cut them on the bias, and directions on how to sew the quilt top with no set-in seams, even a confident beginner can make this quilt using Judy’s strip piecing quilting techniques. The Blue Corn Moon quilt pattern has modern appeal in these eye-catching solids, but you can use your favorite patterned fabrics for a more traditional look.
Judy Martin wrote her first book on Lone Star quilts, Shining Star Quilts, in 1987. One of the quilts in her book, called Unfolding Star, inspired this pattern. With black diamonds down the long diagonal of the block and rings that were a shade darker on one side of the block than they were on the other side, she always wanted to make another quilt based on that idea using a more substantial difference in values. Blue Corn Moon is the realization of that dream.
Designer Inspiration
Ever since I saw my first Lone Star quilt in a library book in 1972, I have been drawn to Lone Stars. Shortly thereafter, I made my first of a half dozen traditional Lone Star and Broken Star quilts. Fast forward to 1987 when I wrote my first book on Lone Stars. In that book, titled Shining Star Quilts, my design focus was on different ways to arrange the diamond-shaped blocks; on embellishing the background patches with piecing or appliqué; on incorporating half-diamond triangles, large and small diamonds, double- and triple-diamond parallelograms, and other variations within the diamond blocks; and on coloring the stars in concentric stars, chains parallel to the long diagonal, and variously accented rings. Favorite patterns from that book include my Mariner’s Star, which is a Broken Star with a Mariner’s Compass center and quarter Mariner’s Stars in the background squares; Spring Star, with its flower blocks in the background squares; and Radiant Star, with a small Lone Star surrounded by 16 more diamond-shaped blocks in a different color forming a 16-pointed star.
One of the quilts in my Shining Star Quilts book, Unfolding Star, had a block that inspired my pattern for Quiltmaker. It had black diamonds down the long diagonal of the block and rings that were a shade darker on one side of the block than they were on the other side. I don’t think anyone noticed the shading because it was pretty subtle. I always wanted to make another quilt based on that idea, but using a more substantial difference in values.
Another inspiration for the quilt patterned here is the collection of gradated blocks and quilts in my new book. These are based on color wheel sequences or monochromatic shadings of five to nine fabrics. For the Quiltmaker block, I combined the shaded rings and the black division into vertical halves from Unfolding Star with one of the color-wheel sequences from the gradated Lone Stars chapter in my Singular Stars book. I had planned to include this quilt in my book, but I ran short of time and space.
Pattern Details
Quilt Designed by: Judy Martin
Pieced and Quilted by: Peg Spradlin
Skill Level: Challenging
Finished Size: 45 3/4″ x 45 3/4”
Finished Blocks: 1 Pieced Block
Fabrics: Fabrics in the quilt shown are from the Stonehenge, Toscana, Essense and Canvas collections, all from Northcott.
