twinkle...little stars :)

For September, the Island Batik Ambassadors were given the theme "Star Struck" for the monthly project.  We had free reign to choose any fabrics from either of the boxes sent to us this year, any method of construction, and any size for our project.  A veritable blank sky for our stars!

I've been quite taken with this "Paisley Dots Brights" collection since it arrived, and decided it would be perfect for little pops of light here and there on a neutral background. 

The background is called "Almond" and although it is hard to see in the picture, it too has a subtle marbling of colour popping out here and there throughout.  Perfect! I used 12 different colours for the stars, so that there is only a little of each showing.

Wanting the effect of the stars to be "barely there", I drew them out with very thin points in EQ8.  So that there would be no division between blocks, I chose to piece this as a sashing star, rather than in traditional block construction.

As I worked, the star points reminded me of bunny ears!  I used a foundation for the points, to keep them sharp.

You can see in my sketch above that originally I intended the quilt to be borderless, but in the end, decided to add colourful points around the piece in the form of half-square triangles.

The coloured triangles circle the quilt in sequential order.

For the batting, I chose the Hobbs Tuscany cotton/wool 80-20 blend we received in our second Ambassador box.  It quilted beautifully.

I free motion quilted spirals in the star centres, and also in the corner squares of the border. For this I used Aurifil 50 weight in a natural white, 2021.

Here's the finished piece, which demanded to be named nothing other than "twinkle"...with a lower case "t".   And here's the surprise for this quilt:  the shapes are all outline quilted with a glow-in-the-dark thread, so it will continue to twinkle and glow gently after the lights go out :)

Measuring 34" x 42", this simple-to-stitch quilt is a great size for a baby, especially backed in a lovely soft flannel.

The pattern for twinkle is available from my website, as an instant download and at Mrs Pugsley's Emporium.

I would like to thank Cheryl Coville, of Grandma CoCo Designs, for her help with pattern editing, as well as Island Batik, Aurifil, and Hobbs for supplying the materials for this quilt.