stella grande star quilts

a star is born.

one night in 2016, as i was drifting off to sleep, i dreamt up a giant single star quilt in a set of vintage colors. 

the next morning, i went to a local fabric store and got several kona cotton solid colors to make my giant star, composed of 12" hsts, and began to play with my idea. 

i named this first giant star quilt "star of the circus" because the palette reminded me of the colors from vintage circus posters.

working with all-solid colors was new for me and i very much enjoyed playing with color palettes on a large scale with this simple design. i quickly dreamed up many more color combinations i wanted to try out. initially i had enough ideas to make a quilt each month for a year.

an obsession was born and i named the series of giant stars i was creating "stella grande," which is "big star" in spanish.

the basic formula for the series is:

• an 8-point star composed of 12" finished hsts
• surrounded by a 6" border of the background color
• a 6" border of the star colors on two ends
• pieced print fabric backing in coordinating colors
• quilted by echoing the seams in 12 wt aurifil thread
• total finished quilt size - 60" wide x 7" long

i came up with a lot of combinations. scroll on to explore the possibilities with me.

the process of making the giant star on a square field with a border at the top and bottom went quickly, even for a slooooow quilter like me. i decided to aim for one a month.

i had a navy and pink plan in place for february when i was prompted to make an all-pink political response quilt called "love all around." i noticed the block pattern of clustered, radiating hearts in may chapell's "love all around" block was the same shape as my 8-point star and decided to add it to my line-up. i super-sized her block to my dimensions and added heart borders (see top photo).

this may have been when i realized there were a number of configurations for color layout within the basic 8-point star shape. my original was a random mix of 8 colors, but there were a lot of other combinations i could play with which would change the look but stay within the silhouette of the star.

after that side trip, i got back on track with my plan for february with "guys and dolls." the border is composed of hsts paired into flying geese blocks formed by the use of value placement - the dark triangles are on the outsides of the border with the light colors inside against the quilt's field.

i like to make my fields (background) out of multiple shades of the same color. i think it gives depth and adds interest.

march was all about the citrus colors of ripe fruit in my backyard orchard. i was trying to capture the glow of the fruits against the greenery of the trees and the perfect bluebird skies that typify our citrus season weather. this took some adjusting as my original plan didn't hit the right notes.

then i went through a few iterations of border ideas, finally landing on vertical strips that resemble festive banners on the ends.

you can see that other than "love all around" i'm still working with 8 colors randomly mixed around a pinwheel configuration in the center square of the star.

april was "valoe," a palette departure inspired by quilter jenna valoe. i also created a unique border composed of strips and hsts in a diamond configuration. still 8 colors in the star. but i was (mostly) on track with my one-a-month plan. i was getting them started each month even if i wasn't finishing the troublesome ones right away.

enter my first departure in color layout, my first print fabric, and a reduction of color numbers. "radiant suzy," made for my 5th child, d3, has 4 colors in the star, one of which is a pale grey gingham, which reads as a solid grey at a distance. (full post here)

this is where i tried out what i call a "blade" configuration. the hst in the center square is paired with the same color hst in the star points. this is more orderly and simple than the mixed random colors. it's a calmer, more serene effect.

this is also the point where i decided i wanted to make one quilt each for my 7 children for christmas. upholding my mom's classic christmas tradition of gifting a partially sewn item, i did not complete them all for christmas, but had each one in a quilt sandwich formation by dec 25th, 2017. 

each child had something that felt like a quilt they could wrap up in. i worked on finishing them over the next several months/couple of years. 

let's look at them.

s1 recieved "rubix star," made to resemble the rubix cube puzzle block he's such a whiz at solving. (i never could do that.) there are the 6 colors of the cube, randomly and unevenly placed like an unsolved, jumbled cube, set against a solid black background, the color of the puzzle base. i was going for the stark colors of the puzzle cubes, so no depth and dimension here with multiple shades of black in the background. the border is 6" squares, again to resemble the pieces of the puzzle cube.

"star in the fairy forest" was for 6th child, d4. oh, i love this one. a lot. the colors came from the print fabrics i chose for the backing. i opted to include the print fabrics in the star on this one, but only placing them in a few spots in place of the solid colors. there is also a thin tan border around the center square of the star and some additional minor points in between the 8 main points. you can read all about it in this post here.

"star on the field" was for 4th child, s2, who was a soccer player at the time. for the star blades, i chose bold colors, but of slightly different values, to represent team jersey colors, and placed them on a deep grass green soccer soccer field. i adore the crisp, smart effect of this color palette. i didn't have quite enough of the green background for the outer edges, so i put in a different color on each side, like the two soccer teams sitting on the opposite sides of the fields. unfortunately, i put them both at the same end as each other when i meant to have them diagonally opposite for a little balance. sometimes mistakes are made and not corrected.

"mary, mary star contrary" was a really fun make with its own special quirks. the color palette came from two prints i used on the back, consisting of deep warm colors, a soft peach, a cool grey, and navy blue. i didn't want the navy blue to overpower the other colors or take away from the warm feel of the quilt, so i worked it in to a few of the hsts by adding 1/2" strips on one side, and by using it for the binding color. the strips are randomly placed throughout the star. the border is all the colors but the blue pieced in strips with a central flying geese block in each.

one more note - this star center's square is set in a diamond configuration rather than a pinwheel.

originally i intended this quilt for my second daughter, but on christmas eve before gifting them, i had doubts. so i just asked the oldest, d1, which of the two quilts she preferred and which was better for her sister. she opted to switch quilts. (the finish post of this quilt is here.)

the quilt she gave up was "etoile de patisserie," another quilt on which i took a lot of liberties with the formula. this star is laid out in the blade formation, sort of. the two neutral colors, tan and brown, are set in full blades. the bright colors, teal, pink, chartuese, hot pink, i paired together for the alternate blades. i also did small accent strips on some of the pieces with a text print that says "eat it all" and a navy blue solid. the field is just the one turquoise blue color because there is already a mix of values in the star colors and i wanted to keep the field crisp. another fun touch - the binding is navy blue interspersed with small pieces of the star colors and text print.

the name and the colors all came from a line of parisian pastry themed fabrics i used on the back. "etoile de patisserie" is "star of the pastry shoppe" in french.

the youngest child's quilt is another dessert-themed name - "neopolitan sundae in pewter." this one is a 5-color blade configuration star. the white and two pinks are used twice in the blades and the two brown colors are used once each. you can see i laid the same-colored blades opposite each other. the background field is a solid pewter grey. the border was supposed to be randomly mixed hsts with the darker-value fabric in the pair on the outside, but when i look at it now from a distance, i did not do a good job mixing up the colors and i flipped the bottom border on accident. this is not something any of us ever notice when using the quilt but can be seen in the still, full-quilt photo.

this quilt is fully quilted along all the seams in a complete grid. some of the earlier quilts i only quilted where there were color changes, but eventually i decided it was best to have the quilting denser by doing all the seams. that shows up beautifully here.

that's all the 7 kids, 7 quilts variations. one more star to go to round out my baker's dozen.

this is "frosted forest star." it's color story is the pale blue winter sky over an evergreen forest frosted with snow and ice. a 4-color blade formation - two greens, two ice colors - on a solid field. this one has remained incomplete because i have failed to find an appropriate backing. i think i've finally decided i just need to do a carolina gingham in pale grey and be done with it. but it's been hard to color-match with a print online. i no longer have any good local stores that carry premium designer fabrics. it's ok. we have a lot of star quilts around this house. i'll get it done when i can get it done right. 

if you've enjoyed this tour of my cosmos, are intrigued, possibly interested in creating your own stella grande, visit my tutorial to learn how you can.

the possibilities are as limitless as the night sky, so start dreaming among the stars like i did.