Oh My Stars! (A Quilt-Along)

Welcome to my very first quilt-along!  I’m really excited to get going on this project and I hope you are, too!  But you’ll have to bare with me…I’ve never hosted one of these before and I’m a bit nervous about it, so please get in touch if ever there is something that is unclear or just plain wrong. :)

So.  First things first.  A blog button!!   (I mean, what’s a quilt-along without a blog button, right?!)

<div align="center"><a href="https://thoughtandfound.wordpress.com/oh-my-stars/" title="Oh My Stars! (A Quilt-Along)"><img src="https://thoughtandfound.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/oh-my-stars-button.jpg" alt="Oh My Stars! (A Quilt-Along)" width="150" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

This button will link to a special quilt-along homepage that I’ve set up, and that I will update with links to each step in the project as they are unveiled.  Make sense?  You can also just bookmark the page for yourself (you can find it here), if you either don’t have a blog, or don’t like littering your own blog with other people’s buttons.  I totally understand.

Next, you’ll need some idea of the required yardage.  This is a tricky question to answer, since it all depends on how you interpret the pattern.  In my case, I’m making a super scrappy quilt, so all that really matters is how much background fabric I need, but that might not be the case for you.  The finished size for the quilt will be 68″ x 92″, which is a generous twin.  I like my quilts to be bed-sized, and with a generous drop, given the depth of mattresses these days.

If my math is correct, then you (and I) will need 3.75 yards of background fabric and 3 yards of foreground fabric, provided that each star is sewn the most efficient way possible.  However, since the intention is for this to be a sampler of the many different ways to interpret a simple sawtooth star, I think a little rounding up would be prudent.  We’re gonna need some room to play, right?!  So I have 4.5 yards of Kona Snow (I’m sure I’ll find a use for whatever is left over…), and a pile of scraps from my vintage sheet collection.  So…I guess that’s the long-winded way to say that I recommend getting:

4 1/2 yards background fabric
16 FQs of various prints for the stars, or an overflowing scrap basket ;)

Now, if you don’t require quite such a large quilt (perhaps you have an older mattress, or you’re thinking of using it as an oversized couch quilt), then the easiest thing to do is to omit the 4″ borders.  This would give you a finished quilt 60″ x 84″, and use 1 yard less of the background fabric.

Since you’ll need some time to get your fabric situation in order, and since next weekend is Thanksgiving south of the border, how about if we get started after that?  Does that make sense?  Also, since we’re headed into the holidays, and everyone has a ton of gift-related sewing on their tables at the moment, I think it likely suits everyone’s needs to work at a leisurely pace for now.  But feel free to correct me on that point if you’re itching to motor ahead.  :) And please leave me a comment to let me know if you’re joining in!  I know that it will likely be a small group, since I don’t have a ton of followers, but it’ll be helpful in gauging my audience’s needs.

OK! So I guess I’ll see you back here on the 29th or 30th!