Free Form Stars

Free Form Stars

By Lynda M. H. Faires

If you love stars but don't like precise measuring, cutting and piecing, you will love this easy and fun technique. If you also like Crazy patchwork, improvisation and contemporary design, you will love playing with the endless possibilities.

Lynda M. H. Faires is a quilt teacher living in Louisville, Colorado, who specializes in teaching contemporary improvisational patchwork and design.

Free Form Stars
by Lynda M.H. Faires

Free Form Stars

These are free-form variations of the traditional Nine Patch block Evening Star, but the star points are pieced with a stitch-and-flip sewing technique instead of cutting and piecing fussy little triangles and bias edges. This makes the stars delightfully easy to make.

When selecting fabrics for the stars and the background, the important point is contrast: the stars must stand out against their backgrounds. Each star can be made from a single fabric or from many different fabrics.

When Lynda began to experiment with this technique several years ago, she soon realized that the possibilities for interesting variations were as limitless as her imagination. Your free-form stars will have their very own personality, too.

Materials

Background fabric
Star point fabric scraps
Rotary ruler, mat, and cutter
Sewing machine
Iron


		Free Form Stars Instructions Step 1 Think of each star block as a 3-by-3 grid, like a Nine Patch. The block can be made of 9 squares all the same size, or the grid can be irregular, centered or off-center, symmetric or asymmetric, square or rectangular. To make a simple star, place a square or rectangle of background fabric on a rotary mat. Use a rotary cutter and ruler to divide the fabric into 9 patches, cutting 2 parallel horizontal lines and 2 parallel vertical lines. Don't measure-- just do it. The more irregularly you cut the grid, the more irregular your star will look. Step 2 To keep the patches in order, mark each with a pin as shown in the photograph. Place a pin at the outside corner of each of the corner patches. Place a pin along the inside edge of the middle patch of each side, at the approximate center of the edge (no need to measure). The pins indicate the side of the patch from which star points will radiate (and the side that joins to the star center, too). Keep the patches in order until the entire star is sewn.
		Step 3 Remove the center patch and use it as a template to make the star center. The star center can be a single piece of fabric, as in the sample, or it can be any kind of patchwork. The centers of the stars in Lynda's quilt are made with Crazy patchwork, irregular Nine Patches, irregular Log Cabins, and random geometric patchwork. This is a good way to use up very small scraps. You could also cut motifs from theme fabric for the star centers.
		Step 4 Now you are ready to apply the star points to one of the side patches. Select a fabric for a star point and cut a small piece or use a small scrap. Lay the star point fabric on the background patch, right sides together. Let the edge of one side of the piece of star fabric cross the background fabric somewhere near the pin marking the inside center edge. And let the same edge of the star fabric also cross the adjacent edge of the background fabric, anywhere on that edge. The further up that edge the fabrics cross, the longer the star point will be. The further down that edge they cross, the shorter the star point will be. Before you sew a 1/4" seam through both layers of fabric, test-flip your star fabric over to be sure it will cover the background fabric. Stitch along the edge of the star point fabric.
		Step 5 Flip the star fabric over, and press. Then turn the patch over (wrong sides up) and use the background as a template to guide you as you trim away the excess star fabric. Don't cut away the background. Leaving the background fabric under the star point stabilizes the patch and you wonít have to pay attention to the grain line. Now you have one star point.
		Step 6 Repeat the process to make the second star point on the same background patch. The star fabrics should overlap along the edge that will be sewn to the star center. Be playful with the star points and make some of them very long and some very short. Then your stars will have a lot of personality, and the viewer of your quilt will know that you made your points irregular on purpose.
		Step 7 Apply the star points to the 4 side background patches. Remember that all the star points can be the same fabric, or they can be many different fabrics, or they can be pieced before they are added to the background patch, as shown in some of the stars in the sample quilt. Sew the 9 patches together just like any Nine Patch block. Now you have a finished star block. Make more stars. This time, cut your background square or rectangle in a very different style of 3-by-3 grid, so the resulting star will have a very different look. If you care what the final size of the block will be, take that finished dimension and add 1 1/2"" to both the length and width (for seam allowances between all the patches) to determine what size background fabric to use for making the grid. However, it can be a lot more fun and creative just to make blocks of different sizes without measuring.
		Step 8 To make really quirky stars, the horizontal and vertical cuts of the background fabric don't have to be parallel. Just follow the same directions as before, and be willing to accept some quirks like the corners of the little patches not all matching up when you sew the Nine Patch together. You can trim the blocks after they are done to neaten them.
		Step 9 How do you put all those different-sized blocks together? Just lay them out in a pleasing arrangement, and add background fabric or other patchwork to fill in where needed