One of my all time favourite Disney films is Beauty and the Beast. Probably because being about 9 years old, I was just the right age to fall in love with the magic of Disney films. Although thinking about it, even now as a grown woman in her late 30’s I still do love a good bit of Disney! So imagine my excitment when I saw that Riley Blake Designs were bringing out a Beauty and the Beast collection, designed by none other than the amazingly talented Jill Howarth.

I had an abundance of ideas for this collection, so much so I struggled to settle on just one. In fact I think I will have to go back and revisit some of my other ideas, just to enjoy this collection for as long as possible! As you can see from my finished make I have barely cut into it. There are so many pretty prints with lots of lovely little details!

I was keen to do a Sawtooth Star block, which is a perfect block to showcase a fussy cut print. So with that in mind I kind of let them guide me on what it was going to become, they were so much fun to make that I got a little carried away making them! So I decided in the end to go with a mini quilt.

For the background I used Le Creme Swiss Dot – Baby Pink, a Riley Blake basic, and it worked beautifully. I was a little worried that the stars wouldn’t “pop” enough but I like to think it works, especially with the addition of some hand-quilting with Aurifil 12wt thread in shade #2423. I did wonder about using a bolder colour but stuck with what I liked most, a pale pink.

Of course it HAD to be a stripey binding! I’m pretty sure 95% of the binding I use these days is stripey! This one is by Riley Blake Designs and is Aqua.

If you would like to make your own mini quilt. Each block measures 6″ (finished) square and has 1″ sashing. I used the fast flying geese method, making 4 flying geese at once.

You will need for one block:

• 1 x 3 ½” x 3 ½” – Fussy cut square for the centre
• 4 x 2 ½” x 2 ½” – Floral squares for the points/sky
• 1 x 4 ¼” x 4 ¼” – “Goose” Square (background dots fabric)
• 4 x 2″ x 2″ – Outside Squares (background dots fabric)
• 6 x 1″ x 6 ½” – Background fabric
• 4 x 1″ x 19″ – Background fabric
• 2 x 1 x 20.5″ – Background fabric

Amy Smart aka Diary of a Quilter has a fantastic tutorial on her blog on how to assemble the Sawtooth Star which you can find – here.

Beauty in the Beast is now in fabric shops in the US and slowly making its way over to the UK as we speak. I am excited to say I will have a select few of the fabrics in my shop, and have been advised it should arrive some time in August.