When you Wish Upon a Star....

Crazy as I am, stars fascinate me! When I was teaching in elementary school over 20 years ago, I was known by my love for astronomy, stars, and space. I was the "Miss Frizzle" (of Magic School Bus fame) of my school. I even put glow in the dark stars on my classroom ceiling, so when we turned the lights out, the students could view the Big and Little Dipper and stars surrounding them! Even though I don't teach elementary school anymore, I still have a love for stars.

When I started to get serious about becoming a quilter, I saw a quilt in a magazine about a year and a half ago, and said, "That's the quilt I'm going to make next!" It took 75 different batiks to make and it was all stars, on point, to make 72 beautiful Ohio Stars, with the other three fabrics as the border and setting triangles. Little did I know what I was about to get into.

I had a blast finding the 75 batiks. I know I went a bit overboard, because I had way more than 75 in my stash to choose from. I went with the teal/purple color scheme, my favorite for decorating!

Next was the mammoth job of cutting! Because of the size and shape of the pieces, it couldn't use precuts, just fat quarters, so I had to cut all the star parts myself. I think there are at least 13 parts for each star.

Here's the pattern.


Here is my progress so far, all cut and sorted, ready to begin the sewing process.

After making the "Stars Aligned" project, I'm not so sure I'm ready to tackle this one just yet. My original plan was to make a few blocks at a time, and I think that is a good plan. This will be a WIP for a long time!

In the mean time, I have other more pressing projects on my mind! Like "Dogwood Trail" that I would like to finish by April 4. Dogwood trees were my late husband's favorite tree, and we were married April 4, 1964. It would be a nice anniversay memory for me to have that quilt on my bed, thinking of him and how beautiful the dogwood trees that he planted looked during April.


Or, I could work on this. I found out that Janome sells three different models of "Hello Kitty" sewing machines. I just ordered one for my granddaughter to use as her first machine. Found this darling fabric today while at the fabric store, I just had to get some!


Right now there are 3 layers of UFOs on my guest bed, two jelly roll quilts and the Patternista stars. I'm hoping this week during spring break I can get to finishinig at least one of them, and start on the Dogwoods. Plus make several costumes for upcoming plays in April. It is going to be a busy week!