Welcome to Week 8 of the Star Adventure SAL! This is our last week! I can't believe how quickly this SAL has flown by.
We are laying out our blocks, making our long sashing and assembling the entire quilt top!
POST TO INSTAGRAM
Week 8: Post a photo of your completed Star Adventure Quilt top!. Be sure to use the #staradventuresal hashtag to be entered into this week's giveaway.
You must post by Thursday November 16th at 11:59pm PST to be entered into the Week 8 giveaway. Each week starts fresh on Fridays and the previous week's post won't count for the next week's prize.
The weekly prizes will include a custom 12 piece FQ bundle curated by Meghan, Ponderosa Thread Gloss kindly provided by Paige Anderson, and one other notion gifted by Then Came June! 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.
Here is a photo of the Week 6 Giveaway Winner's bundle. I was able to just make whatever I wanted for this week's winner bundle, I looked at our FQ cabinet and just started pulling. And I created what feels like a festive but modern red and blue bundle!
LET'S SEW!
First let's play with our quilt block lay out! If you are making the Medium Throw you will have a 4 x 5 grid (4 quilt blocks wide by 5 rows long) and if you are making the Large Throw you will have a 5 x 6 grid. Feel free to lay it out on your floor, bed, design wall, anywhere that you have some space.
Let's start with our Bella Solids Large Throw quilt blocks - the one I, Meghan, have been making. I intentionally didn't leave any space between my blocks on my design wall because I know the sashing is all the same (not scrappy). So that is one less level of visual organization needed. If you are doing Scrappy Sashing, I will have more insights for you below in Alysson's quilt photos.
Because I tried to make sure I had a mixture of bold/muted/combo in my quilt blocks, I talked about this in the Week 2 blogpost, the layout of the quilt blocks follows the same idea. Here are some tips I followed while making my layout:
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I work row by row but feel free to work column by column, it just helps break down the process a bit.
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Make sure 2 background colors in the star blocks are not side by side
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Tried to mix bold blocks and muted blocks and combo blocks into each row
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Because the center of the star is such a large solid amount of fabric, I also am mindful to not have 2 of the same centers be right next to each other in a row
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Lastly, I will take a photo of my layout and then switch it to Black and White on my phone and it will show off the contrast and color values of your blocks. It will become clear where certain areas are maybe too dark or too light and you can adjust a block here or there to make sure you have a real mixed speckled look in the quilt top.
If you scroll really quickly up and down the last 4 photos, you can imagine panning across all 30 blocks. So fun!
Okay, so this is where I ended up with my block layout. Again, we will be adding sashing when sewing this up and we are used Kona Roasted Pecan.
Now if you scan across each row, you can hopefully see the variance in the bold/muted/combo blocks. I did move a few around but really, I just left it mostly as is once I had put them all up. And now here they are in BW.
At this point, we attached the short sashing in between each block within the rows and press those seams open. And then we made our long sashing and added them between the rows, again pressing the seams open. I still need to take photos but I will share the finished quilt top next week!
Next up, we have the Medium Throw Star Adventure that Alysson has been working on. She made the Solid Star style which means each block has only two fabrics in it. The star is made to look "solid" from one fabric. When you see all the blocks together you can see how the backgrounds are made from blues/greys to sort of evoke clouds and then the stars are warmer colors. The idea of "cozy" really stands out when you see them all together.
The main thing we focused on the most with her layout is making sure any of the directional prints were facing the way we wanted in their final orientation in the quilt. All the other tips above still apply here.
We did also leave some space between blocks so we could place our short sashing intentionally in the rows. And for this step, I just recommend NOT putting a short sashing right next to the background of a block in the same fabric. Otherwise, it is meant to look random and scrappy.
Do you see that Peach Star fabric that has stripes in it and the Orange Star fabric (same print but different colors)? We decided that we wanted one of those fabrics to make the stripes vertical and one set to be horizontal. This is where you can play with the directionality of your fabrics. It just felt nice to make them slightly different between the two fabrics. So both peach stars are vertical and both orange stars are horizontal.
And you can see how we placed the sashing between the blocks. And now here is a BW photo.
At this point Alysson sewed her rows all together before making her long sashing.
Make sure you do snap a photo, regardless if you are going to turn it black and white, but this way you can reference it each time you are sewing the sashing to the blocks and into rows. It is really easy to turn a block 90 degrees or 180 degrees and then those directional prints won't face how you thought they would.
When making scrappy long sashing, it's up to you with how intentional you want to be with the fabric placement. My suggestion is to make sure that you are sewing some of those short strips in between the long ones (you will have a mix of fabric length). This will make the seams and fabric changes appear more random and not like "is this meant to be off?" But you will attach them all the same as above.
I can't wait to show you guys the finished quilt tops! They turned out so beautiful.
THE STAR ADVENTURE SAL SHOW + TELL EVENT
As the SAL is wrapping up I wanted to remind people that we are going to host an exclusive Star Adventure SAL event in early December! We are excited to host participants from the Star Adventure SAL in our studio! We plan to mingle, chat, have some snacks and drinks. We will be doing a show + tell so everyone can show off their finished quilt top and we will do a Q+A. Before the event wraps up, we will have a fun shopping hour. This is a great time to grab backing or binding or shop for future projects or for fun! We will be capping this event at 50 people so please RSVP to grab a spot if you plan to attend.
RSVP to Grab a Spot at the Star Adventure Show and Tell!
THE WEEK 7 WINNER
The winner of this week's prize is @shannonlookenott!! You have won a custom 12 piece FQ Bundle curated by me, some lovely Ponderosa Thread Gloss and a pair of 10 pack of Wonder Clips!!! Please email us at hello@thencamejune.com so we can coordinate getting you your prizes!
