Friday, March 31, 2023

Star Upon Stars: Block 2 and Backgrounds


Star Upon Stars: Block 2 and a Background Fabrics Discussion

A beautiful star in the end, but not exactly what I was looking for. And that is the whole question when we create any block. "What exactly do you want it to look like?" Being so new to this pattern, I'm was still not completely sure. Remember I said I knew I had a lot to learn by making this quilt. Watch the video below as Edyta explains her theory for picking colors, and method for construction.


While Edyta Sitar was explaining her take on the quilt, she remarked about the setting stars being darker than the center star. That says to me that the center star is the focus, and the outer stars are in more of a support role for the block. The outer stars should include some of the colors from the center, but ideally be a darker shade. This one is the same shade as a green within my star. Let's get into backgrounds, and see what happened.


When I originally pulled all my fabrics for this block, I chose a darker plum for the stars. I picked a background fabric of a truer white with pink stars. It worked well together when I picked fabrics, but at this point of construction I felt it failed. Why? In true light, the cream in the center of the quilt looked off with the whiter background. I could have let it go, and chocked it up to experience, but it made me groan. I went digging for another piece for stars and background both.


Choosing a Background

This was my original choice I pulled for a background. After I constructed the diamonds, though, I felt I hadn't chosen enough contrasting fabrics. They felt very 'medium' when sewn together. Laid on this somewhat dark background made it further disappear. Again, it didn't have enough contrast for my taste.



This is the same fabric I used with the plum stars, but these diamonds were turned in the final block. (Here you see green points in the center, but the final star has the orange in the center.) They look okay here, but did not look as good flipped in the final block.



I really liked this background! It felt nicely neutral, and was a contender.


Here is the same print in a tangerine colorway. This warmed up the colors in the diamonds, and I loved it.


Same warm orange, but it didn't do anything for me. 


Meh. Dark and blah.


Then I found this gorgeous olive on black print, and went, "WOW! That's it." I promptly did all the cutting as a background fabric, and not the stars. My jaw dropped. I only had an 1/8 yard piece of fabric, and it was gone. I had to walk away. Keep your head in the game!


So this green floral wound up on the this block, and I'm fine with it, but not thrilled. I will no longer pull all the fabrics at once. I'll make the star then choose a fabric for the background and stars afterward. Lesson learned, this is a complex block. Take the process slowly.


The next fabrics are already pulled for a red, grey and blue block. I'm excited to get this out of the way, and move on. Cheers to all of you who are doing this quilt, and thanks to Laundry Basket Quilts for talking us through it. The next time around I'll show you some of the tools that are making this block construction easier. See you then.

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.



1 comment:

audrey said...

I am having so much fun following along with you on this. I LOVE the quilt design, it's absolutely stunning! NOthing that I feel up to doing at the moment though. I am terrible at diamond shapes and this looks very tricky.:)