Block 1 of the Barn Star Sampler

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Over the last few days I’ve been working on the Block 1 of the Barn Star Sampler for the Quilt Along being run by the Fat Quarter Shop. I posted earlier about my fabric selections for the Barn Star Sampler HERE if you’re interested. I’m sure you’ll notice as you see my blocks that I like to do things a little differently than most.

The first block of the Barn Star Sampler is pretty complex. Since I’m working with random fat quarter collections I found that I felt much less stressed just picking my fabrics step by step in the block. If I tried to pick everything all at once I felt overwhelmed so I just let the fabric choosing be organic.

This month we were asked to make two of Block 1 which means 64 half square triangles (32 in each block). I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to give the Triangles on a Roll a try. I don’t typically use papers to sew half square triangles but these truly made making so many super fast!

I used Star Lites from Sew Tites to keep my fabric/paper sandwhich together while I was sewing. The lite options have less heavy/strong magnet which made it work on my machine better than the standard ones. It doesn’t hurt that they are adorable!

Once I had all the stitching and trimming done I decided to use my Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmers from New Leaf Studios to take care of those pesky dog ears. Check out my instagram reel HERE to see the process in sped up time.

Here is the first block I ended up creating. This block features fabrics from

• Celestial Fabric by Zen Chic for Moda Fabrics
• Birthday Fat Quarter Bundle by Sarah Watts for Ruby Star Society
• Unruly Nature Fat Quarter Bundle by Jen Hewett for Ruby Star Society
• Pietra Fat Quarter Bundle by Giucy Giuce for Andover Fabrics.

For the second block I decided that I wanted to swap the values and use darker colors for the background and lighter colors for the star. It was fun to mix it up a bit.

A panel is included in the Birthday Fat Quarter Bundle by Sarah Watts for Ruby Star Society and I thought it would be fun to fussy cut out some of the creatures for the center of the star. This won’t work for every block but I hope to add bits of the panel in as I can throughout this quilt. I just love the bit of whimsy it adds.

And here is a picture of my first two blocks side by side! They won’t be next to each other in the final quilt layout but it’s fun to see just how different they can be!

Keep up with the quilt along by following @fatquartershop and @persimondreams on Instagram to see and share work from your fellow quilters. Don’t forget to use #BarnStarSamplerQAL to share your progress on social media, so we don’t miss seeing your quilts!

Other quilters are sewing along too! Be sure to check out their versions of the blocks – it’s always fun to see the path everyone decides to take!

Meet the Quilters

• Anne Boundy, Said With Love, (@said_with_love)
• Melanie Call, A Bit of Scrap Stuff, (@abitofscrapstuff)
• Rebecca Bird, One Wee Bird, (@oneweebird)
• Reece Ortolani, Hurricane Quilty Stitches, (@hurricanereecequiltystitches)
• Melissa Corry, Happy Quilting, (@happyquiltingmc)
• Pat Sloan, (@quilterpatsloan)
• Gina Tell, Thread Graffiti, (@gina_tell_threadgraffiti)

I’ll be sharing what my Block 2’s look like on February 24th! Stop back!

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