If you’ve been sewing for a long time, chances are you’ve amassed a fairly large stockpile of scrap material. Even more likely, you hang on to every last piece of scrap in the off chance that you’ll find a use for it. Fearing that you’re the next face of a Hoarders episode, you begin to formulate uses for some of the surplus. The moment has arrived. You decide to use what you can on the Quilting Under the Stars pattern. It’s a solid choice.
The materials you’ll need for an 80 x 86-inch, roughly a queen-size, quilt are as follows:
- 126 — 5-inch squares
- 40 — 2 ½ x 44-inch strips
- 2 ¾ yards of background and inner border fabric
- 1 ½ yards of outer border fabric
Nothing to it. Once you’ve gathered your color-coordinated pieces, it’s just a matter of cutting, piecing, and sewing them together. Yes, all of them.
It’s best to pre-cut the sizes you need all at once, and then you’re ready to begin assembly:
- 126 – 5-inch squares
- 40 — 2 ½ x 44-inch squares become 320 – 2 ½ x 5-inch rectangles
- Out of the 2 ½ yards of background, cut the following:
- 2 ½-inch square block = 110 total squares
- 1 ½-inch square block = 880 total squares
- 1 1/2 yards of outer border fabric
While this pattern is intended for the purpose of cleaning up some of your scrap, there’s another aspect you might consider. That’s right, buying more material, perhaps precut pieces that already match.
It’s actually a pretty straight forward pattern that takes a little thought and planning, but you also have a great deal of leeway for artistic license in the color and material department. It’s an intermediate, or very confident beginner, level pattern. Perhaps next time you’re sitting by a warm, open fire, looking up at the clear starry sky, you’ll be quilting your “under the stars” pattern.
The key is to organize all of the precuts into individual groups, so that when you begin sewing, you can run through the quick stitches and ironing in an assembly-line manner. This is a pattern that you can do while you’re watching television; however, you do need to devote some attention to fit and measurement. Since this is a pattern focused on stars, it’s important to make sure that they line up as they should.
This type of design lends itself nicely to batik fabric prints. The colors in batiks are so vibrant that the star cut in a coordinating color really stands out and clearly defines the pattern. This design seamlessly lends itself to a variety of decorating styles. It all depends on the fabrics you choose, but it can work just as well in a modern setting as it does in one that’s traditional or country.