Welcome to Week 2 of the Everett Star SAL! Last week we talked about the different Everett Star Design Styles, provided lots of mock ups and hopefully provided you some fun color inspiration!
Week 2 we will focus on organizing our fabrics, cutting out our pieces and then putting all of our cut pieces into block piles!
POST TO INSTAGRAM
Week 2: Post a photo of your cut fabric or block piles. Be sure to use the #everettstarsal hashtag and tag@thencamejuneto be entered into this week's giveaway.
You must post by Thursday January 25th at 11:59pm PST to be entered into the Week 2 giveaway. Each week starts fresh on Fridays and the previous week'ds post won't count for the next week's prize.
The weekly prizes will include a custom 10 piece FQ bundle curated by Meghan and a TCJ bandana! You will be contacted when you win and then you get to let me know the color palette you are interested in - all blues, neutrals, rainbow, etc. And I will take your idea and build you a bundle! You get to also tell me if you want all solids, all prints or a mix. I can't wait to specially curate a new bundle each week! And yes, this is open to International participants.
BEFORE WE CUT
In the Everett Star Pattern, we prioritize fabric pairings and choices before we even cut. For this section, I am dividing the information by the Design Styles. Please follow the tips and suggestions for your specific Design Style only. At this point, you should have your fabric picked out and on hand.
I am providing all the information up front and then I will demonstrate how I am applying the information to my own make lower in the blogpost. And as a reminder, I am making the FQ Frenzy Design Style so all my photos will highlight this Design Style.
As another note - The FQ Frenzy Design Style is fun and simple but doesn't have as many built in "rules". I will provide a bit more guidance or suggestions as it doesn't have any strict rules (one reason I decided to make this Design Style for the SAL). The other two Design Styles, naturally follow specific design decisions, so the information provided in the pattern is clear and concise.
FQ FRENZY DESIGN STYLE
You should have 18 FQs chosen to become Everett Star Blocks. (Ignore any fabric for the HST Border at this point). From these 18 FQs, your first step is to pair up 2 FQs for a total of 9 pairs. Each pair will become an Everett Star Block. When choosing your pairs, be mindful of a few things:
- Do you LOVE the two fabrics together? If yes, yay! If not, let's think about it.
- I recommend having some pairs that play up high contrast, low contrast and some mid tones. An example would be maybe a dark blue paired with a light peach? Or a light blue paired with a light yellow? And then maybe two fabrics that are very similar in saturation/intensity/color. I will show you this in my make below.
- If you are working with all prints, be mindful of the scales of each fabric in a block pairing. If they have different scales, that will provide some contrast. If they are similar in scale (say each little flower is roughly the same size) you will have less contrast.
- If you are mixing solids and prints, great! I think it will be amazing. If you have a perfect divide of 9 prints and 9 solids, it would make sense to me to try and make each pairing a solid and a print. If you are an uneven split, that will also be fun. But maybe watch that you aren't making like 3 pairs that are all prints and then 6 pairs that are all solids. Try to find a middle ground with a mix.
Once you feel good about your 9 specific pairings, now you get to decide which pairs will become Diamond Blocks and Cross Blocks. For the Throw Size, this means you will have 5 Diamond Blocks (DB) and 4 Cross Blocks (CB) and they do have specific placement in the quilt. It is a 3 x 3 grid with Row 1 going DB/CB/DB, Row 2 is CB/DB/CB and Row 3 is DB/CB/DB.
For a refresher, here is how the Diamond Block and Cross Block are created. The Diamond Block is made up of A and B cuts and the Cross Block is made up of C and D cuts.
How I always think of fabric placement in each block is "what fabric do I want the 4 corner stars to be made out of?" And I am specifically talking about the star points and center square, NOT the background fabric of a star block. So for the Diamond Block, this means the A cuts will become the 4 corner stars. And for the Cross Block, the C cuts become the 4 corner stars.
The simplest way to guarantee some sparkle effect is to decide which corner stars you want to be bold and which you want to be quieter. If you want your Diamond Block corner stars to be bold, then make sure the bolder fabric in that pair is used for A cuts. Then automatically that means the 4 corner stars in the Cross Blocks should be the the quieter fabric of those pairs, and are now the C cuts. The choice is yours, there will be contrast and sparkle no matter what but this is an extra little step that guarantees maximum sparkle!
Lastly, once you have made your pairings and chosen within each pair what cuts it will provide, make a label! I cut up a printer paper and wrote "DB - A" or "DB - B". Also, take a photo so you can reference your pairs incase you get disorganized or confused - it's easy to happen!
FQ + YARDAGE DESIGN STYLE
The FQ + Yardage Design Style is the perfect mix of the other two design styles. You should have 9 FQs and then 2 1/4 yards of your chosen yardage fabric. By choosing this Design Style, you have already made the majority of your design decisions! The pattern provides all the information needed to know what fabrics gets you what cuts.
Each Everett Star Block in this Design Style is made up of 1 part FQ and 1 part yardage.
You will need to decide which 5 FQs you want for the Diamond Blocks and which 4 FQs you want for the Cross Blocks. From there, you will follow the pattern exactly as written as this design style tells you what fabrics become A, B, C and D cuts. It is intentionally written to create the utmost alternating sparkle effect.
It will be important to label which FQs will become which cuts so you can stay organized. EX: Diamond Block Fabric B Cuts or Cross Block Fabric C Cuts.
For more pictures and explanation, you can check out the Snow Day Everett Star Sample we made. It highlights the FQ + Yardage Design Style.
YARDAGE + GRADIENT STAR DESIGN STYLE
The Yardage + Gradient Star Design Style uses two main fabrics in yardage to create almost every part of the Everett Star Blocks. The one difference is that the very center star is made using an additional 4 fabrics to create a Gradient Star. You will follow the cutting directions provided in the pattern.
Please note that the first diagram provided in the Sewing Instructions where each fabric cut needed listed is correct. But, it does only highlight that TWO fabrics are used to create each block. When making this Design Style, some of your cuts will be provided by the Gradient Star fabrics and help you get to the totals needed for each block. Follow the cutting instructions and when making your block piles in a bit, it will all make sense!
For more pictures and explanation, you can check out the Midnight Everett Star Sample we made. It highlights the Yardage + Gradient Star Design Style.
BEFORE WE CUT - OUR MAKE
Here are the fabrics we are using to make our Everett Star Quilt!
As a reminder, here is a mock up visual of what our Everett Star Quilt will hopefully look like! The bottom two fabrics - the gingham and the dark blue floral will become the HST Borders. The rest are our 18 FQs for the blocks.
Below I have paired 2 FQs together to create 9 pairs.
They are laid out also specifically in the placement they will be in the final quilt top. Three rows of 3 pairs.
Now I want to visually explain the high contrast, mid tones and low contrast suggestions I provided above. Not only am I referencing purely colors but also scale of the prints mixed within the pairs.
In total I have 4 high contrast pairings, 3 mid tones and 2 low contrast blocks.
To break it down more, here are my Diamond Block pairings.
And here are my Cross Block pairings.
Now that I have my pairings, I went through and decided which cuts each FQ will provide. I have noted DB is Diamond Block and then CB is Cross Block. Also, the four corner stars for each DB come from the A cuts and the four corner stars for each CB come from the C cuts.
For the Diamond Blocks, please note that 4 out of the 5 pairings have the A cuts coming from the lighter fabric. I wasn't 100% hard and fast with that rule as I stated above because of the mix of contrast between the pairs but I think you get the general vibe. This means the majority of the lighter fabrics will become the 4 corner stars of these Diamond Blocks.
For the Cross Blocks, the four corner stars are made from the C cut fabrics. Again, I only followed my rule half way through this round. *Technically* I should make the Fabric C fabrics be the darker of the two FQs so that they are opposite of what I did in the Diamond Blocks. But again, it's just a suggestion and I liked the variety that these fabrics give to the final look.
Now here they are all together and labeled. And back in their grid layout for how the fabrics will be in the final quilt top.
Lastly, I have stacked them back into two specific piles, keeping the labels intact. One pile for Diamond Block cuts and one pile for Cross Block cuts.
AS WE CUT
Now that we are organized and have labeled our fabrics if needed, it's time to cut! Here are a few tips before you actually cut:
- I would start with a fresh rotary blade so the cuts are as clean and accurate as possible.
- If you are using linens or woven fabrics, I definitely would recommend using starch. There are a lot of small cuts and starch will help them retain their shape as they wait to get made into blocks.
- I do NOT recommend stacking any FQs to cut more than 1 at a time in this pattern. Stay focused on one FQ at a time or one block's cut as a time (mostly for FQ Frenzy and FQ + Yardage).
FQ FRENZY DESIGN STYLE
Follow the pattern and be sure to keep your block piles together as you cut. EX: Cut 1 Diamond Block at a time - FQ A gets all their cuts, then FQ B gets all their cuts, then stack them together before going onto the next block. This is the best way to stay organized. So essentially you are building your block piles as you cut. Easy peasy.
FQ + YARDAGE DESIGN STYLE
Follow the pattern and be sure to keep your FQ cuts together and labeled. Work on cutting your Diamond Block FQs and Cross Block FQs first. Again, be sure to keep all cuts from a single FQ stacked together and labeled. Next, move onto the yardage cuts and follow those instructions. Once all of your yardage cuts are finished, it's time to create your full block piles. At this point, you have half of every block done as (1) FQ equal half a block.
Follow the block by block diagram in the first part of the Sewing Instructions to create your block piles. The Diamond Blocks FQs have already provided you the B Cuts so you need to go back in and fill in what's needed for all the A cuts block by block from the yardage. The Cross Block FQs have gotten you all the C cuts needed so you need to go back in and fill in what's needed for all the D cuts block by block from the yardage. You will create 5 Diamond Block piles and 4 Cross Block piles.
YARDAGE + GRADIENT STAR DESIGN STYLE
As a reminder, the majority of your cuts will be provided by the Color 1 Set fabric chosen and the Color Set 2 fabric chosen. Additionally, the 4 fabrics picked for the gradient center star will provide the final cuts needed for the Star Points, the Large and Small Bars and the Small Center Squares of those middle stars. The diagram provided highlights visually only the 2 color Everett Star Blocks. To help make it even more clear, I am providing an extra visual below to help you when building out your block piles.
Color Set 1 provides almost every single piece needed for the A cuts in the Diamond Blocks and the D cuts in the Cross Blocks. Color Set 2 provides almost every single piece needed for the B cuts in the Diamond Blocks and the C cuts in the Cross Blocks.
Furthermore, the background of the gradient star - the corner squares and the inside flying geese, will ALWAYS be from Color Set 1 A and D cuts for BOTH blocks. You can see that in the visual above. And then the final cuts needed to finish the gradient star come from the 4 additional fabrics chosen.
Use the diagram above and the total provided number of cuts needed per block in the pattern. Remember the center star is made up of the 4 additional fabrics and those will get you to the same total number of pieces needed.
You will now also end up with 5 piles of Diamond Blocks and 4 piles of Cross Blocks.
HST BORDER - ALL DESIGN STYLES
We will cut and sew the HST Border completely from beginning to end during Week 8 of the SAL. We are NOT cutting that this week.
AS WE CUT - OUR MAKE
My block piles were labeled and stacked as 5 pairs for the Diamond Blocks and 4 pairs for the Cross Blocks. I worked FQ by FQ, making sure I didn't misplace my label, pressed my FQs nice and flat and cut according to the diagrams in the pattern. Then I made sure to keep each pair together, stacked and labeled.
Once I had finished cutting all my pairs, I stacked them in the 3 x 3 grid order of how they will look in the final quilt top and snapped some photos. The scraps left over are so pretty, I had to get them in a few photos as well.
At this point, I am stacking my piles and keeping myself organized so each week it is simple to grab what piles I need and work block by block!
I am excited to see each of your block piles and how you end up mixing your fabrics. Next week we will be sewing 1 Diamond Block and 1 Cross Block according to the pattern. This will help us fully wrap our head around how this quilt is designed, made and assembled. I can't wait!
THE WEEK 1 WINNER
Congrats Anne of @morticia360_sewalong!! You have won the first week prize! Please email us at hello@thencamejune.com and we will start curating a 10 piece custom FQ bundle just for you and a TCJ Bandana!
EVERETT STAR SAL GIVEAWAY WINNER
Thank you to everyone for your excitement over the Everett Star SAL! I am excited to announce the randomly selected winner of the Everett Star Cover Quilt Kit is Laurie Eastman!! Please email us at hello@thencamejune.com so we can get you the prize!!
