How to Quilt a Star in a Star Block

I’m really excited to share this weeks quilting ideas with you, because I’ll actually be quilting out one of the quilting plans! I have a quilt made from this months block all done and ready to go, so I’ll actually be stitching my design out. It’s always fun to create plans on paper, but so much more exciting to execute them and see how they look on an actual quilt.

One easy way to get started with a star in a star block is to use the shapes that are there. With this block, there are lots of little sections already blocked off for you. It makes it easy to work within the squares and triangles created by the piecing and come up with different fills and ideas. If you really want the star to be the focal point and stand out, consider using lines in the background to draw all your attention to those star shapes. You can then keep the quilting in the stars simple (works really well for stars made from prints) or really go all out and focus your quilting on the stars (works great for solids).

 

Quilting Plan 1

With this plan, I worked entirely in the shapes that are there. By echoing the squares, I separated them from the rest of the block and then you can simply fill them in with whatever you prefer. I used the same design in the center square. For the spaces around the star, straight lines draw all the attention to the main element, the stars. Because I had simpler quilting around the stars, I chose to put denser quilting in the big star. First, I echoed again to really define the shape, then I filled it in with swirls. I kept the smaller star simpler but you could definitely use the same design that you put in the outer star as well, as you’ll see later.

Quilting Plan 2

This plan starts to ignore the lines a little and treats the inside star as one piece instead of defining the center. Here, I’ve kept the quilting in the stars the straight lines and put more dense quilting in the outside spaces. As you’ll see in the video, you can go simple with the diamonds in the background as I’ve shown here, or fill in some of those areas as well.

Quilting Plan 3

This plan puts all the dense quilting in the background elements and keeps the stars very simple. If you are using busier prints for the stars, I recommend something like this, as you won’t see the quilting in the stars as much. However, it works great for solids as well. For this block, the lines in the corners will connect the different stars and create lots of fun shapes in the background to fill in. By putting in an echo around each of the shapes prior to filling them in, it really helps define those spaces and make them stand out from each other.

Full Quilt Quilting Plan

With the full quilt, I first started by connecting star shapes to break down the spaces. I realized this created a frame around some of the stars and thought I could connect the leftover stars and create a woven pattern. Then it’s a matter of filling those spaces in. After I did that, I broke the space down even more with the squares around the stars. For the empty spaces around the inside stars, I alternated the designs to match the connecting designs on the opposite stars. This really helped to bring a connection between the two elements. Some straight lines and dense fill keeps the attention on the stars, even with the have background quilting. I will also quilt the background in matching thread so it blends and doesn’t compete with the stars themselves.

Blocks to Print

If you want to print out blocks and use them to sketch and plan some quilting designs, use these blank images below. You’ll want to save the images to your computer or device and then you can print and draw on them from there.