A "Star" is Born

Polly shows how a beautiful star quilt is created.

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Quilt Materials

The first step in creating a Star Quilt is to obtain quality fabrics, batting, and other quilting materials. Fabric color, pattern, and texture are very important, and Polly spends a lot of time picking just the right fabrics for the quilt she has in mind.

 

New Fabric is Arranged

 

The new fabric is arranged in the color scheme that will be used for the new quilt.

Fabric being Ironed

 

All of the quilt fabrics must be ironed to remove wrinkles before the marking process can begin.

Polly marking the fabric

 

Using a pencil or quilting pen, Polly starts marking where the fabric will need to be cut.

Polly cutting the fabric into strips

 

Polly starts cutting, and cutting, and cutting...

Finished cut strips of fabric

 

Soon, cut strips of fabric are soon all over the place!

lengths of fabrics are pinned and sewn together


The lengths of fabrics are arranged in the proper color sequence and laid in staggered rows.  They are then pinned and sewn together. This picture shows the strips already sewn together.

Polly cutting the "strips of diamonds"


Polly uses a cutting board and a rotary cutter so that she can cut  very accurate "strips of diamonds".  Doing this avoids cutting single diamonds, saving time and produces a quilt with less "bunching" or "bubbling".

Sewing the diamonds together

 

All of the diamonds are meticulously sewn together into long colorful strips, which are then assembled and sewn together to create the "star".

Two star points done

 

Two points of the Star Quilt are completed!

Four star points are done

 


Halfway there! Four points of the star are completed.

Completed star

 

After many hours of sewing, the star of the Star Quilt is done!

Cutting the fill-in

 

The star will need some company, so Polly starts cutting the "fill-in" for the Star Quilt.

Fill-in is added

 

The fill-in is added in sections. Here four sections have been sewn in, four more squares are left to do.

Assembling the star, batting, and backing

After the fill-in and the border (dark red fabric) has been sewn on, Polly lays a fabric "backing", followed by a sheet of fluffy batting, and then the star top. She will stretch these three layers and then hold them together with pins (pin-basting). Polly will then use either a ruler or a long squared rod to mark the "quilting lines".

Polly quilting the layers together

 

Polly now sews the three layers together, following the faint quilting lines she penciled in earlier.

Trimming the edges

 


Now that the quilting is done, Polly trims excess material from the edges in preparation for the "binding".

Adding the bias tape

 


Using "bias tape" Polly binds the edges of the star quilt. Sometimes Polly uses a different color for the edges.

Completed!

 


A Star is born! A finished King Size Quilt in all it's splendor.





Questions?  Contact Polly's Quilts at Send mail to Polly!polly@starquilts.com Thank you!

Welcome! | Star Quilt Gallery | Quilts by Gina! | FAQs | A "Star" is Born | Star Quilt Tradition