Starbright Stars: Week 1

Welcome to September, friends! What’s more fun than going back to school? Starting a new quilt, of course! And maybe, probably, also sharpening your patchwork piecing skills. You’re welcome =)

On the dock this fall is one of my most requested sew-alongs ever. This is a clever quilt that is easier to sew than you would guess. Make something special with your fabric scraps or sew that fabric stack into sparkly stars!

To find out how to join the Starbright Stars sew-along, click over to the master sew-along post. It’s a digital pattern, so you can grab it in a flash and sew right along.

Week 1: gathering fabrics

Hopefully you already have a copy of the Circus Cabin quilt pattern and have been dreaming of a seasonal palette to channel with this quilt. Still feeling stumped? Need some help going from palette to practice? This post walks you through my process for gathering and choosing fabrics. Follow along and get inspired to start your own Circus Cabin!

Step 1: Rifle

First, rifle through your string scraps and see what speaks to you.

Here’s my collection of long, thin string scraps. I used to keep the blues in the bin with the green and teal, but they outgrew the bin. My neutral/purple bin is also fit to burst. With all of these cool colors in such abundance, I’m thinking that a winter-themed Circus Cabin would make sense.

In the same way, start with the colors you have in abundance or by picking out a few favorite prints. You can wind your way toward a seasonal palette from there.

Step 2: Focus

As I rifled through my neutral bin, I made some edits on a whim. I removed all black. This kind of edit gives a palette focus. Ask yourself what color you’d like to skip this time?

Next I reached for my multi-color scraps. I added some fun prints to the right side of my work table, choosing prints that would work with the neutral mix I’d already chosen. Yes, this is looking fun!

At this point, hone in on a few key prints and colors that you really, really love. These are your guiding mood colors. Don’t let yourself get distracted from whatever is drawing you to them as you continue to gather fabrics. I found myself especially drawn to my Rifle Paper Fabrics scraps for this quilt. They set a lux, vaguely holiday tone.

Step 3: Select Solids

OK, here’s where it gets real! Translate your evolving color ideas into specific solid colors. You can do this by pulling actual yardage from your stash or using a color tool like the swatches from The Quilter’s Field Guide to Color. Don’t stress - you can always change your mind later! Try to do this quickly and instinctively, following your gut as you gather colors.

Here’s my wintry stack. I have blues, cool greens, wines and a touch of brown and lavender.

You might not actually use these solids to make your quilt, as you might have sufficient scraps instead. Make the stack to define and clarify your palette. Looking at it will help keep you focused as you sew your scrap quilt.

Step 4: Gather Fabric

You guessed it - time to make a mess! Gather all the print and solid scraps that suit your palette. String scraps must be at least 2'‘ wide. You can include fat quarters or yardage that you’d like to use as well!

Step 5: press + Sort

For a Circus Cabin quilt, it’s really helpful to sort your scraps into four categories: light prints, light solids, dark prints, dark solids. This makes assembling blocks so much easier. Tame the mess you made in the last step by pressing scraps and sorting into these categories.

As you sort, weed out any scraps that you have in too-small quantity for Circus Cabin. Note that you can use small lengths of light scraps for the border area (see pattern page 5). The dark scraps must be at least 11.5” long in order to be used in the border. I made separate stacks for fabrics that could only be used in border blocks.

Step 6: Choose Contrast

Almost done! Last of all choose a contrast color for the “squares” in our quilt. Ideally this color fits well with your color scheme, but isn’t well-represented by your scraps. It is easier to choose this contrast color now since you know what fabrics/colors you have available for your blocks.

I made groupings of possible fabrics for my Circus Cabin log cabin blocks. Then I auditioned possible contrast colors for the ”squares” elements. I chose this golden tone, which reminds me of the metallic gold accents on so many of my Rifle Paper Fabrics prints that were my favorites for this quilt.

Week 1 Sew-Along Goal: Fabrics + Sew 1 block

Those tidy stacks of scraps are calling your name! Feel free to complete this week’s sew-along goal by sewing your first block.

Share to win!

This week share a photo of your fabrics with hashtag #CircusCabinQuilt.

Or if you’re already there, let’s see your first block!

Your photo enters you into a giveaway for the Hexie Handbook pdf by Tales of Cloth. It's the Hexie Quilt pattern to cover a multitude of hexie quilt patterns!

The Hexie Handbook includes a basic 3" hexagon quilt pattern, 14 extra 3" hexagon block designs to create whole new quilts, and The Hexie Harvest Sampler Quilt!

Winner will be announced next week and giveaway is open worldwide.