Today's Star Adventure is actually our first sample we made. We used a really cute new line of fabric from Aneela Hoey called Pips for Moda Fabrics. It has adorable dogs, kids swinging, trees and kids scootering. There are also several small geometric prints that add a fun texture to a mostly solid looking fabric.
We wanted to jump into testing the Star Adventure pattern with this fun bundle. The fabric collection has 29 skus in it and I had a FQ bundle. We needed to add one more FQ to get to a total of 30 FQs needed. We wanted to test not only the sizes, scale of the stars, but also cutting strips from the FQs for scrappy sashing. We added a solid peach FQ to the bundle. Before we started, I made a couple mock ups just to get an idea of how I wanted to divide the fabric into star cuts and background cuts.
We chose the first mock ups where the lime fabrics were in the star cuts only. We didn't really intentionally plan anything beyond that we liked the first mock up more. Also, because we were solely focused on the math, the process, the numbers, we didn't take any progress photos. We were just head down focused on sewing.
Because the prints are so playful in the fabrics, I wanted a sort of bouncing playful pantograph as well. Emily and I talked and we picked Easy Clamshell Echo and Emily offset the pantograph so it wasn't stacked with open space. And we chose a grey thread so it would blend a little bit more than be bold.
We bound the quilt in a Carolina Gingham 1/8" Denim. And we backed it in a Wide Architectures in white from Carolyn Friedlander. I like how the grey thread shows up slightly on the back without it being too intense.
This quilt is so fun and I love the prints. The texture of the quilting is playful yet traditional as it's based on a the classic clamshell. Oh and the main difference with this sample and our pattern is in the scrappy sashing. For this sample, we cut strips from all the FQs, not just the background FQs. I personally like it better when the sashing is from the background FQs only as it helps them blend more. It makes the stars pop a bit more. But since this was our test quilt, we were playing with using all the FQs. This is the benefit of making a test quilt and adjusting as we make it and write it.
The Star Adventure Quilt Pattern is out now! This sample makes the Large Throw that finishes at 69" x 83", using 30 FQs (15 for stars and 15 for background) and scrappy sashing.
