Scrappy Quilty Stars Quilt 

I’m good at lots of things, but following the schedule of a Sew Along is NOT one of them. I was excited to join when Emily Dennis announced that she was doing a summer sew along for her adorable Quilty Stars pattern, but was doubtful about getting it done on time. I was correct to be skeptical – I did not get this scrappy Quilty Stars quilt finished by the end of the sew along. Oh well – it’s done now and is oh-so-cute!

Motivation

Sometimes you just need to work on a quick project. After finishing my linen flying geese quilt, I was ready for a small, easy project. I knew it would be a great choice when I started seeing lots of Quilty Stars quilts showing up in my feed.

Fabric choice

Inspired by all of the scrappy goodness I was seeing in the #quiltystarssal hashtag on Instagram, I chose to raid my stash for the fabric pull. I don’t have a very large collection of scraps, but I do have some Bonnie and Camille fabric in my collection.

Some of it is left over from when I made my giant Snippets quilt (AKA The Worst Quilt I Ever Made) and my baby Scrappy Trip Around the World, and I have some random fat quarters as well. I just love how happy and cheerful these colours are! I also tend to buy 0.5 and 1.5 yard cuts when I find them on sale. They make great bindings and backings for baby quilts!)

This pattern calls for some small scraps, which is GREAT! I keep scraps as small as 1.5″ square, and sometimes wonder if I’ll ever find a use for them. I was overjoyed when I saw that Emily’s pattern would use up some of my smaller pieces!

Editing the palette

Bonnie and Camille fabric comes in a wide range of colourways (thanks to their many many fabric collections). In order to keep things looking more cohesive, I edited down my scraps to navy, aqua and red (which I would argue are B&C staples), and added in some pinks and greens. I’m really happy with how they all look together!

As always, I used Moda Bella 97 as my background colour. I find it to be a perfect creamy white and a nice complement to the bright and cheery B&C fabric.

Constructing the scrappy quilty stars quilt blocks

I really like big blocks. They finish so quickly and you hardly have to make any at all! For my baby version of the scrappy Quilty Stars quilt, I only had to make four blocks. FOUR! So fast and easy!

The blocks came together very quickly, with the slowest step being colour placement. That’s a process that takes me a bit longer to complete. I find that I can arrange and re-arrange fabric for a very long time! Is that something that happens to you as well, or does it come naturally to you?

Making (minor) modifications

You all know that I never leave a quilt pattern alone – I seem to always change something about a project. For this one, I changed the dimensions of the sashing and borders in order to reflect my personal tastes and the dimensions of my backing fabric. I also modified it so that it would be a rectangle (instead of a square as the pattern suggests). For some reason, I much prefer the look of a rectangular quilt (although I have made an exception in the past).

Longarming

I think this is the fastest project I’ve ever put on the long arm frame. I loaded after breakfast one morning, and finished it in time for a mid-morning snack. Is it weird that my time references revolve around food? Hopefully not!

I chose the Wishbone pantograph from Jess at Threaded Quilting, and now it’s all I want to put on everything!! This pattern would look beautiful stitched out on any quilt. And every quilt!

Finishing

After trimming the quilt sandwich, I used my usual machine binding technique. I made a tutorial of my process (the secret is glue basting the binding first) and saved it to my highlights on Instagram. I encourage you to check it out if you’re interested in machine binding your quilts!

Outdoor photography

After the success taking outdoor photos of my linen flying geese quilt and last years’s Perfect Autumn Quilt, I’ve decided to *try* to take more pictures of #quiltsinthewild.

Earlier this fall, Ian and I went for a hike in nearby Riding Mountain National Park. We brought the scrappy Quilty Stars quilt in a backpack because why not, right? We stopped at the warming hut on the way to Grey Owl’s cabin and snapped some photos at this wood pile. Ian was a great help in trying to figure how how to hang this from the wood frame. Mental note: next time bring clear push pins.

Then we continued on our hike and arrived at Kinosao Lake. The weather was so beautiful, and it was such a peaceful moment on the dock. I think it looks right at home in nature!

Want it? It can be yours!

This baby quilt is currently listed in my Etsy shop, just waiting for someone to give it a good home. Historically, my Bonnie and Camille quilts have sold quickly. If you’re interested in this particular scrappy Quilty Stars quilt, I would encourage you to act fast. It would make a wonderful gift for a baby shower, or for a little one to cherish.

Update:

This cute little quilt has already been sold. If you’d like to see any of the other quilts I have for sale, you can visit my Etsy shop here.

Thanks for stopping by, and please let me know if you have any questions about the construction or the quilt itself by commenting below.