It is hard to believe June is almost ending. The month has went by so quickly. I started working on a design for this challenge back in May using EQ8. I love designing blocks in EQ8. It was nice having a little extra free time to work on my “Free Theme” Challenge. I came up with a block design I adapted from an English Paper Pieced block I believe is called Rolling Star.
Rolling Star Block
As you can see there is a lot of tricky piecing. I thought what if I could redesign this block and make it using traditional piecing techniques. I began to break it down and I came up with how to do this. This is the outline of the block I created in EQ8.
Now the fun part of making this block, selecting my fabric. I chose to use an Island Batik Pre-cut 2 1/2″ Strip package of River Valley in the construction of the star block. River Valley is available now at your local quilt shops. The colors remind me of the midnight sky on a full moon night. One strip pack will make twice as many blocks, but for this project I used only 1/2 of the strips in the package. I designed the block to have high contrast and used yardage for the background, borders and binding. I wanted to give this block a little extra sparkle so I added applique circles in the corners of the eight pointed LeMoyne star and strips of fabric accents in the corners to create a secondary design when these block are joined together in the quilt top.
LeMoyne Stars can be challenging but I found a wonderful tool to make them. It is the LeMoyne Star Ruler By Studio 180 Design. Deb has a very nice video on how to use this ruler. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmvQOFxsnaQ. The ruler comes with step by step instruction on how to use it.
Once I constructed my 6″ LeMoyne Star block, I added the accent corners to the block. I designed a paper pieced foundation template to create the accent corners and sewed them to the star block. The corner sections were created using a paper pieced template I created in EQ8.
Applique Circles
I cheated in making the applique circles. I used the Accuquilt GO! It was so easy making the circles using the GO! circle dies. The circles are made using a machine turned edge applique technique. I cut the small circles using Quilters Select Print & Piece Fuse Lite fusible and the small circle die that is in the GO! Qube Specialty Set-Serendipity by Edyta Sitar. This die is the GO! Flower Shapes Die, # 55744.
The fabric circles were cut using a slightly larger GO! 2″ circle die # 55012. The 2 1/2″ strips were the perfect size to use for cutting these circles. Using a turned applique technique, I prepared my circles and created finished 1 1/2″ diameter circles to place in the corners of the LeMoyne Star Block.
Constructing the Quilt Top
Now the magic happens. When the nine blocks are sewn together they make a 36″ x 36″ center. See what happens when these blocks are joined together. A beautiful diamond shape appears. We have created “Diamonds in the Sky”. I also like how the strip pieced corners create an unusual zigzag framing of the center. I used white 50wt. Aurifil thread in the making of the blocks and the construction of the top. Schmetz Super Non-Stick needles were used in the piecing and machine applique of the quilt.
Adding the borders
Now it is time to add on the borders. I wanted to create a nice frame around the Octadic Star blocks. I thought constructing a checker-board frame would be a nice compliment to the quilt top. I used the Island Batik Foundation yardages BE24-E2, White, and Chartreuse to make the borders.
Finishing the quilt
The quilt is quilted with pale yellow #1135 Aurifil 50wt thread using the new Aurifil Thread Color Builders Sicily Yellow 3 piece collection.
Heirloom® Premium 80/20 Cotton/Poly Blend. I quilted it with a spiral interlocking circle quilting design to give it a Celestial Milky-way Galaxy effect.
The finished quilt after adding the borders measures 60″ x 60″. Meet Octadic Stars.
60″ x 60″
60″ x 60″
I hope you enjoyed this challenge. If you are interested in making Octadic Stars leave me a comments and I will consider making it into a pattern.
Happy Quilting!
Pretty! I really like your stars, and the circles add a fun touch. River Valley is so beautiful! I love your description of the darkening sky on a moonlit night!
Thank you Emily!
Just beautiful Carol. I loved that you used both the Studio 180 Design LeMoyne Star tool and the Accuquilt Go cutter, and those fabrics are to die for!
Thank you Gail. I loved the Rapid Fire LeMoyne Star tool. It was so easy to make them and so very precise.
It’s beautiful;, Carol. It is a difficult block even with the rework and the tool. And the circles are a nice touch.
Carol your octadic stars quilt is stunning!
Would love to see a pattern. The quilt is stunning!