Star Explosion…the next chapter

Over the last 2 months, you have seen bits and pieces of my latest quilt called “Star Explosion”. When I last posted explicitly about the quilt, it was at this stage……

….and I had run out of cream-colored fabric!! I figured I needed 3 more yards and was starting to panic when I couldn’t find more. Finally, I found one store with 1-3/4 yards and another with 1-1/4 yards. THAT was a relief!!!!

Once I had the fabric in hand, it was time to decide where the quilt was headed next!!!

I felt that I needed to pull some of the “duller” colors in the center star to the outside of the quilt so I started playing with possibilities……

Maybe cubes…..

……or stripes……

Definitely NOT!!!

What about some smaller stars…..

YEP….that is where I am heading!!

My first thought was exactly HOW I was going to do all of the inset seams where the star meets the background, but I finally realized that I could piece the star first…..

and then add the background to the COMPLETED star…..

SO MUCH EASIER!!!

It was important for me to match the star points when I began adding these long strips and I used a four-part sewing process….

I would first match the points……

….and pin them into place…..

….carefully laying out the rest of the strip and pinning it well.

Next, I used a basting stitch to sew those points together…..

When they looked ok……

…..I went back and sewed the full seam using a normal stitch length…..

Yes, it was a bit time-consuming, but it meant that I didn’t need a lot of quality time with my seam ripper!!!

Now, the majority of the piecing is finished……

Come back tomorrow as I turn this fun design into a square-ish top!!