Throughout my quilting years, over 11 now, I’ve noticed that the majority of quilts I’ve made have a light-colored background. Actually, most quilts do. But, being one who loves color, I wanted to design a quilt that shows mostly that—color! I also wanted it to showcase stars and as a result, my latest pattern, Twinkly Stars.
Twinkly Stars is the classic sawtooth star surrounded by various colored backgrounds bordered with the same color of the stars. Often times I go for bold and bright, but I wanted to lean toward muted colors for this one.
The plan was to make a queen size for my bed (another one?) using only solids. Since I’d need a variety of colors and hues, I raided my solids stash first.
A while back I’d purchased a Bountiful Blooms Coordinates fat quarter bundle by Moda, and this was the perfect project for them.
The pattern is designed for fat quarters, yet yardage works too, so I used both. I needed more than pictured above so I purchased a fat quarter bundle of New Century Solids by Andover Fabrics, and it is gorgeous!
The queen size quilt requires a whopping 72 blocks, so I had a lot of cutting to do.
Since there was quite a bit, I didn’t cut and make all the blocks at one time, I did them in batches of 5 or 6 stars.
The stars are made using flying geese so there’s plenty of opportunity for chain piecing to speed things up.
Here’s a look at a few star centers from the Bountiful Blooms Coordinates.
These were from my stash…
This was definitely a project that I worked on at my leisure. It was very relaxing because of the simplicity of the blocks. While I was in no hurry to finish, chain piecing the blocks made the process go faster.
Here’s a finished block in one of my favorite colors. 🙂
Once all the blocks were complete, trimmed and starched, it was time for layout. Because there were so many tone variations in addition to several different colors, I used this placement method for keeping like-colored blocks from one another:
To start, I kept approximate blank spaces on the floor for rows and columns. For layout example, because there were 2 same-colored blocks for most colors (stacked in pairs) I would lay out a block say ‘first in the first row’ and to keep it separate from it’s mate, I’d lay the second one say ‘sixth in the fourth row’.
I would continue with this process until I filled all 72 spaces. Additionally, I’d coordinate ‘next to’ colors with blocks already laid. For the most part, I didn’t have to make many adjustments once my layout was complete. Here’s the first row finished.
Here are more rows with sashing…
And so on…
Once my top was finished, I had the dreaded task of trimming threads off the back. Every quilter must dislike this tedious job, but it’s very necessary for a nice, crisp front. Take a look at my back all trimmed and ready for longarming.
For a nice soothing feeling, I chose a serpentine quilting motif. I really like the outcome!
I also chose a violet solid for the binding.
I love this quilt and it’s so nice to have it on my bed so I can enjoy it daily.
Twinkly Stars is a great pattern for quilters of all levels. The pattern is available for purchase in my Etsy shop. It’s written for 5 sizes: baby, throw, twin, full and queen. Definitely a fun make and a great stash buster too!
Monday Morning Designs 