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Page Two
I
have made this big star so many times that I have lost count. It is a fun
project and can be made very quickly. You will need only eight of these big
diamonds, four triangles and four of the corner squares and you have the
center medallion for a quilt. For me that is just one mornings work. Add
some plain borders of several strips and your top will be ready for the quilting.
If you want to 'fancy' it up more then add some appliqués to the big
background squares and triangles. This could even be done with machine appliquéd
designs from my collections ;-). You can do as I did to the one shown here
and quilt a design in these areas for the faster way to finish your quilt.
Or maybe, make some smaller stars to fit in the areas. Look for a chart with
the instructions for drawing the large templates and
instructions needed for making these quilts at the end of this section.
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Click on photo for a larger view
I
have found these stars look best if the colors are chosen with care as you
would any quilt. They are lovely as a multicolored design but do use restraint
in color choices. The bed topper '4 Stars' (below) is an example of these stars
using a multicolored scheme. The small stars were machine appliqued. For an example the rose quilt above I
used a large variety of different rose prints. I choose one basic print with
a white back ground with rose and green flowers. It is always good to choose
one fabric to start a quilt and then select the others to match it. This
large print had just enough greens to add a bit of contrast that I felt was
needed for the look I wanted. The white background of this main fabric added
the needed sparkle. I choose a lot of different prints in shades of pink/roses
with different type designs. There were strips, checks, different size florals,
medium size designs as well as small designs. The better the variety of different
design elements and color tones, the more interesting your quilt will
be.
This blue/rust quilt above is an example of using a two color scheme. I used
a rust shade and a light peach to accent this quilt. Any two colors that
you like together will work well. Just use this accent color in a lot less
amount, like 75% blue and 25% accent or something similar. It is your quilt
and you only need to please yourself. This quilt as well as the pink one
is made using the 60 inch star. It is shown on a queen size bed so you can
get an idea of how it will look on your bed. In the close up view below you can
see the quilting design I used on some of them. You can also get
a better look at the variety of prints that I used. I cut my strings from
1 inch to 3 inches in width and just using them at random with no set pattern
of how they are laid. Start these diamonds by laying the first strip face
up across the center. There is no need to lay them exactly across the center.
Vary them and you will make your quilt more interesting.
Click on photo for a larger view
The green and blue quilt on the
right above is the large 72 inch star and you can see how it will fit on
a queen bed. The points will over hang a little and this is the way most
Lone Stars are made. I prefer the 60 inch star (shown on the right) but the
70" stars will take less borders. The choice is yours. In the close
up view (above) you can see how I quilted some of them. I drew these quilting
lines with a wooden yard stick that I had drilled a small hole at each inch
interval. Using a large hat pin to hold it to the center of the quilt, I
put the pencil lead in a hole and swung the yard stick around drawing the
lines in a perfect circle. This was very fast and easy way to mark your quilt.
Use a very sharp lead pencil and draw lightly. When quilting go just beside
the lines and not on top of them. This way you can use one of the fabric
erasers and remove them after you have completed the quilting and before
you remove it from the frames.
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