Diamond Star Quilt

I started this quilt in early October and just finished it a couple of days ago. It has been my main sewing project over the past few months though I did set it aside more than once to work on other projects. It measures 73" x 83" but will surely shrink a few inches when it gets washed. A trip through the washer and dryer is definitely needed - all the star parts were drawn with marking pen before being hand stitched and it has spent a fair amount of time on the floor. 

The star blocks were hand pieced in four parts, heavily inspired by Alison's quilt, shown here on her blog, Little Island Quilting. I fussy cut most of the centers and sewed the four triangles together by machine. The quilting is also a combination of hand and machine stitching - utility stitching by hand with size 8 Perle cotton for decoration and plenty of stitch-in-the-ditch by machine to stabilize and strengthen the layers.

The stars dominate the design, as they should, but together the blocks also form a nice secondary pattern. I started out with a couple of odd colored blocks, coral and green, but then leaned toward a warm and bright palette. Eventually, I think I ended up with a nice balance of color and contrast.

The backing is an Amy Butler print with a lighter coral polka dot for binding.

The two border fabrics are dusty pink cameras and peachy hexagons and were hand quilted with pink Perle cotton. I did a lot of the hand quilting after I had sewn down the binding.

The borders weren't quilted yet but the volunteers were available!