Chocolate Stars

The inspiration for this quilt was not only the beautiful Moda fabric but my strong urge to take the piecing to the edge, stretch my abilities in piecing and inspire you to do the same.

The quilt is shown in Queen size 85" X 85" 

The quilt can be easily adjusted to 12 blocks, a Twin size 65.5" X 85".

Alternate yardage provided below in parentheses.

Chocolate Stars

85" X 85"

Featuring Marti Michell Template Set R

Queen Size (twin size)
29 Fat Quarters of FreeBird by MoMo (22 FQ's)
3 yards sashing Freebird Ovals Nest sku #32245-19

6 yards backing Freebird Leaves Melon sku #32243-13 (4 yards)

1 yard binding Freebird Oval Melon sku #32245-13 (3/4 yard)

Queen Kyoto Bamboo Batting

Marti Michell Template set R

Organize your fat quarters and chose 16 (12) for the large blocks

{I suggest the largest prints--refer to picture below}

Press fabrics and cut {16}(12) 15.5" blocks.

Set aside.

Next choose 13 (10) fat quarters for the sashing stars and press {I chose mostly dots and lighter prints}

In order to maximize your dark brown sashing fabric cut 15.5" X Width of Fabric (WOF) strips.

Do this for a total of 6 strips.

Turn your yardage and sub cut into (7 or 8) 5.5" X 15.5" strips.

Make atleast 40 sashing strips 5.5" X 15.5".

Using the #96 template in set R, place the template on the fabric edge as shown and cut.

Repeat for opposite side.

Disgard the corners.

The result is a sashing that looks like this.

Now take the "sashing star print" fat quarters and sub cut them as shown.

5.5" - 5 5/8" - 5 5/8"

Do this for all 13 'sashing star prints' (10 for twin size)

Using template 97 and 97R  (97 flipped) sub cut the 5 5/8" strips as shown.

Cut atleast {8} 97 and {8} 97R from each fat quarter.

Now take the 5.5" strip and sub cut into {2} 5.5" squares.

A design wall or area is essential for this quilt.

I started by cutting all my pieces and laying out the rows.

I did this for the entire quilt BEFORE I started sewing.

Next start assembling the sashing.

Take a brown strip and sew the 97 and 97R template pieces to the sides as shown.

**Note** to construct the block properly there are {2} 97 and 97R pieces needed for each sashing strip. 

***12 of the sashing fat quarter prints are used twice in this quilt.

The 13th fat quarter print is used only once.***

This shows how to match your template seams.

Look how closely they match.

Next, pin pin pin!

Sew and press.

Piecing the sashings as rows was the most organized construction for this quilt.

Continue to sew the 97 template pieces to the dark brown sashing.

And continue to piece the rows.

Here I added the 5 inch print square.

pin, pin, pin!

Again, look at how nicely the seams match.

now once the pieced sashings are complete, start assembling rows with the large print 15.5" squares.

And assemble the rows that are just pieced star sashings. 

Take care in organizing your rows as you sew them to keep pieced sashings in the correct direction to form the stars.

Here the quilt top is starting to come together.

At 85" X 85" it doesn't quite fit on my design wall.

Once the rows are assembled then the rows can be sewn to each other.

The top is done!

Quilt, bind with lovely orange Freebird fabric and you're done.

Chocolate Stars Quilt

Queen size

85" X 85"

I hope this tutorial inpsired you to try a new template, stretch your quilting skills and use some fun fabric too!

Thanks Vickie E

aka Spun Sugar Quilt designs