Welcome to my stop of Quilting Gallery’s Glorious Autumn Block Hop!

Today I’m very excited to be sharing a new quilt block tutorial with you, the Autumn Star. The Autumn Star is a 12.5″ x 12.5″ (unfinished) quilt square. The background consists of a variety of neutrals, starting from light at the top of the block and working their way darker as you go to the bottom of the block. (Scroll to the bottom of the post to see what I made with my star.) Let’s get started!

Step 1: Cut your fabric. I decided to make my quilt block scrappy which meant cutting extra print fabrics so none of my HST (half square triangles) per size were the same. You don’t have to do this, I just liked the look. The below chart shows the minimum requirements for cut fabric. If you’d like your star to be extra scrappy like mine, you will need to cut extra prints per size.

Step 2: We will first assemble the inner star. Take your (4) 4.25″ x 4.25″ inner star point fabric and your (4) 4.25″ x 4.25″ cream/text print background fabric and cut them diagonally into HSTs. Pair up 1 of each print HST to 1 of the cream/text HSTs.

Step 3: Sew, right sides together, down the long end of the HSTs.

You should now have 8 squares.

Step 4: Trim your (8) squares to 3.5″ x 3.5″.

Step 5: Using your quilting ruler, cut your squares diagonally in the opposite direction as your sewn seam, as shown below. You will now have (16) HSTs. Set aside 8 of these to use, and 8 for the scrap bin.

Step 6: Because I wanted a scrappy look, I decided to lay out my inner star points until I was pleased with the colors.

Once you are happy with the look, sew each of your HSTs together to form hourglasses as shown below.

Step 7: Trim your blocks to 2.5″ x 2.5″.

Step 8: Take your (4) 2.5″ x 2.5″ Cream/Text Print squares, your 2.5″ x 2.5″ Center Square and your (4) Hourglass squares and lay them out like a 9 patch, as shown below.

Step 9: Sew the squares together into rows.

Step 10: Sew the rows together to form a 6.5″ x 6.5″ square.

Step 11: Now we will make the star points for the outer star. Take your (4) 4.5″ x 4.5″ outer star point fabrics and cut them diagonally into HSTs.

Take each of your 4.5″ x 4.5″ tan background fabrics (you should have 1 of each of your shades of tan) and cut them diagonally into HSTs too.

Again, I wanted my block to be scrappy so I laid out my fabrics until they were just right.

If you are doing the varied shades of tan like me, keep in mind that your top row is your lightest fabric and work your way down to the bottom row, your darkest fabric.

Step 12: Sew each of your print HSTs to your tan HSTs, resulting in 8 squares.

Step 13: Trim your squares to 3.5″ x 3.5″.

Step 14: Layout your block using your sewn components and the remaining 3.5″ x 3.5″ tan background squares.

Step 15: Sew the top 4 squares together into a row. Sew the bottom 4 square together into a row. Sew the side 2 squares together into columns.

Step 16: Sew the left and right columns to the inner star you made in the first half of the tutorial.

Step 17: Sew your top and bottom rows to the middle rows.

You’re done! Enjoy your beautiful star!

I decided to add a bit of sashing to my block and turn it into a Fall pillow for my couch.

I free motion quilted the star portion (not the dark sashing) it in a nice meandering design. The backing is a great text print from Sweetwater’s Mama Said Sew line.

I hope you enjoy making your very own Autumn Star. Be sure to check out Quilting Gallery’s Glorious Autumn page for more tutorials, coupons and giveaways!

I was lucky enough this past week to have the chance to work with artist Laura Gunn’s upcoming line, Cosmos. Laura sent me a charm pack with 5″ squares of each of her new designs and Painter’s Canvas. As usual, the fabric is beautiful. If I had to pick a favorite, I think it would be the Tiny Cosmos print. I’m already thinking I need to buy more and make some pillows for my couch with it.

I was debating what I should do with charms, and I decided to use the Ribbon Star tutorial from the Solstice Stars Series, with some minor changes. Since the charms were a bit larger than I needed for the 12″ block, I decided to increase all the squares that make the block slightly (up to 4″ x 4″ after trimming rather than 3.5″ x 3.5″). Simple enough change that resulted in a slightly larger finished block.

I also decided to use several different shades of tan for the background rather than white. I just randomly selected these as I was sewing my HSTs. I quilted in diagonals, 1/4″ away from each side of the diagonal seams. The binding is Skinny Stripes in Citron, from another Laura Gunn collection, Poppy.

Cosmos comes out in September, keep an eye out for it at your favorite local or online fabric shop!

A few weeks ago, I decided to bite the bullet and cut into the Liberty of London fabrics I bought 2 years ago. (Well, start planning the cutting anyway.) Sometimes I don’t know why I buy “fancy” fabric because I just get some sort of fabric-paralysis and become too scared to use it. Two years of waiting was long enough.

Voiles from top to bottom: Fuchsia, Rose Pink, Coral, Gold, Yellow, Cilantro, Green, Water, Seafoam, Heather, Purple, Sky

I thought if I was going to use these lovelies, I needed something soft and silky to go with them. I bought a variety of Free Spirit voile fabrics. I love voile…but it does pose some challenges. It is a bit slippery to work with, so I just pin more and try to pay extra attention when piecing. I purchased these from Hawthorne Threads. Pink Castle Fabrics also has some voile solids available.

They looks so pretty together.

I have started some paper piecing…future pattern maybe?

Can’t wait to show you more soon!

Updated to add some works in progress from today.

Piece, Piece.

Trim, Trim.

Next month I’m lucky enough to be leading a sewing workshop at the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild. I grew up in Cincinnati and my family all still lives there, so this will be a really fun opportunity for me to hang out with all the talented modern quilters in my hometown.

The guild was really great and left the decision as to what we would be working on up to me. I love improvisational quilting so I thought that would be a fun technique for everyone to explore. This is our class sample ~ improvisational log cabins.

These blocks are a bit similar to the pillow I made Jennifer last October. You can see the work in progress below.

I broke down the log cabins by warm and cool colors, incorporating a bit of grey and just a small amount of prints.

The border is a black and white Alexander Henry crosshatch.

I quilted this mini quilt with randomly spaced organic lines. They are all around 1/4″ apart, but I didn’t mark or measure. I used my walking foot and slowly moved the fabric back and forth ever so slightly as I quilted.

This new quilt has a home above my new computer workstation in my sewing space! For more information about the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild, you can contact them through their blog or email them at cincinnatimodernquiltguild (at) gmail.com.