All-Star Quilts: 10 Strip-Pieced Lone Star Sparklers

By Helen Frost and Blanche Young

“Packed with color examples, patterns, and easy step-by-step directions . . . a fine pick for any quilter seeking an easier way of producing star quilts.” ―Midwest Book Review
 
Based on the eight-pointed LeMoyne star, these quilt projects use the tried-and-true strip-piecing method that Blanche Young originally developed in 1979. Blanche and her daughter Helen have been exploring this historical star ever since, playing with different configurations and sizes, to captivate generations of quilters to come.
 
The ten projects include Lone Star, Touching Stars, Rolling Star, Broken Star, Star of Bethlehem, Double Star, and Blazing Star—all of which you can make without having to cut diamonds—and a gallery of twenty-five additional quilts is also provided!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781607051589

Helen Frost

Helen Frost is the author of several books for young people, including Hidden, Diamond Willow, Crossing Stones, The Braid, and Keesha’s House, selected an Honor Book for the Michael L. Printz Award. Helen Frost was born in 1949 in South Dakota, the fifth of ten children. She recalls the summer her family moved from South Dakota to Oregon, traveling in a big trailer and camping in places like the Badlands and Yellowstone. Her father told the family stories before they went to sleep, and Helen would dream about their travels, her family, and their old house. “That’s how I became a writer,” she says. “I didn’t know it at the time, but all those things were accumulating somewhere inside me.” As a child, she loved to travel, think, swim, sing, learn, canoe, write, argue, sew, play the piano, play softball, play with dolls, daydream, read, go fishing, and climb trees. Now, when she sits down to write, her own experiences become the details of her stories. Helen has lived in South Dakota, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Scotland, Colorado, Alaska, California, and Indiana. She currently lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her family.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Lone Star, Star of Bethlehem, Blazing Star—by any name, this glorious quilt pattern has captivated quilters for generations. The basis for this design is the eight-pointed LeMoyne Star, one of a handful of quilt patterns that seem to be as old as piecing itself. Barbara Brackman, in researching old patterns, discovered that the eight-pointed star appears to have been the most popular design in early quilts, with the Star of Bethlehem perhaps the first fad quilt.

We have been exploring this design for more than 35 years, never tiring of it because each quilt turns out so differently. We have played with various configurations of star points, making other designs and discovering some new ones. We’ve also tested new sizes of diamonds and found that tiny diamonds are easier to make than big ones!

In the 30 years since our first Lone Star book debuted (complete with cardboard templates), the tools and materials have improved and so have the quilts. We realized that it was once again time to put pen to paper—or fingertips to keyboard—to present new quilts and variations for quilters to make. We hope the gallery quilts will serve as a retrospective of sorts—not of all our stars, but of our more recent output—as well as inspiration for your own starry wonders. We hope that you, too, will be captivated by these dazzling designs.

FABRICS TO PAINT A STARRY SKY

If you only pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance … it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky.

—Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

Quilters have been entranced by stars for as long as they have been putting needle to fabric. This geometric design, filled with movement, showcases a quilter’s skill as well as her fabric collection. Tiny diamonds of blazing color, any color, can create radiance unlike any other patchwork patterns.

Star Fabrics

To choose fabrics for a reproduction-style star, look at the myriad examples made by quilters of past generations. Those quilters usually contrasted the colors to form strong rings of color. They also introduced light fabrics, sometimes the same color as the background, to break the star points.

To make a more contemporary-looking star, however, try choosing fabrics that gradually blend from lighter to darker or from color to color. This blending of colors creates the illusion of depth and layers.

Here are some guidelines for fabric selection, whether you want a traditional look or something more contemporary.

• Always look at the fabrics from a distance of a few feet. What may be an enchanting print up close could be a mishmash from a little farther away. Place the various fabrics next to each other to see the effect they have on each other and how they look together from a distance.

• Starting with lighter colors at the center of the star and gradating to y darker colors at the widest part of the point is more pleasing than the opposite. Using dark fabrics for the center of the star creates the optical illusion of the center sinking inward.

• If you use a contrasting color, place it in an important spot—at the tip of the star, or the center, or at the hub, the widest part of the point. Placing a strong color anywhere else breaks up the point visually, center and tip

Contrasting color at center and tip

Contrasting color at hub

• Avoid alternating the same two colors. Because of the diamond configuration, alternating colors results in the dreaded Argyle sock syndrome.

• Make sure the fabric for the star’s center is of good quality, because it will be handled frequently. The center is a crucial area for accurate piecing; a thin, lightweight fabric number will make accurate piecing more difficult to achieve.

Background Fabrics

The sky is the limit when choosing the background fabric. A splashy, big print can complement the fabrics in the star points and be an eye-catching element, while plainer prints will recede and let the star steal the show. Although light colors are traditional, sometimes dark prints or solids help the star glow.

Solids or mottled prints will show off quilting designs, which is something to consider if you plan to hand quilt.

You may want to wait to choose the background fabric until the star points are finished. It’s amazing how different the star will look when placed on various background colors and prints.

Fabric Arrangements

The fabrics in the star can be arranged in several ways. Quilters of the past usually chose a random arrangement, perhaps choosing the next fabric based on the quantity on hand. We have classified two of the most popular arrangements.

Reverse/Repeat: The fabrics are used in sequence and then, except for the last fabric, are repeated in reverse. This is a formal, elegant approach.

Reverse/Repeat arrangement

Radiating: The fabrics are used in sequence, having a different fabric for every position, or ring, in the star point. This arrangement can look very traditional or very contemporary, depending on the fabrics used.