It’s Week 6 of the Shattered Star Quilt Along and you’re on a quilty rollllll!!
You’ve been showing up and doing the quilty work and making amazing progress.
Go you!
And, by the end of this week, you’ll have a completed quilt top!
Wahoo!
*This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission.
LESSONS LEARNED TO DATE
But first, let’s recap all the quilt techniques you’ve learned to date:
- Checked out all the essential tools and notions you’ll need.
- Tackled picking your fabric and considered their colour values,
- Learned all the ins and outs of pressing them nice and flat; and
- Picked up tips on cutting them accurately.
- Made half square triangles using the 8-at-a-time method.
- Learned how to trim your HSTs using a regular and specialty HST ruler.
- Tackled small piecing and learned about Leaders & Enders.
- Learned how to nest your seams.
By now, you’ve developed some amazing quilting skills that will continue to improve as you practice, practice and practice some more.
Ok, let’s put those skills to good use and dive in to stitching your Shattered Star quilt blocks and rows together!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
For Week 6 of the Shattered Star Quilt Along you’ll need the following tools and notions to piece your Shattered Star quilt top:
- Your pieced Shattered Star Blocks – mine feature a combination of Little Town fat quarter bundle paired with AGF PURE Solids in: *Flamingo, *Smooth Pebble, *Icy Mint, *Spruce and *Zambia Stone.
- *Sewing machine – I sew on a Juki TL-2010Q and use a 2.0 stitch length when piecing.
- *Thread for piecing – this is my go-to.
- *Pins (optional, although highly recommended) –if you’re just starting out, pinning reduces shifting which leads to more accurate outcomes.
- *Scissors for snipping your threads.
- *Iron
- *Ironing board or wool mat – save 10% at The Felt Store with code: SHANNONFRASER10 (now until December 31, 2020) – Canada & US.
- *Tailor’s clapper – this is optional but works great if you prefer working without steam.
- Shattered Star Quilt Pattern
JOINING YOUR QUILT BLOCKS AND ROWS
There’s really nothing to joining your quilt blocks.
Remember how I showed you how to join the two halves of your Shattered Star quilt blocks?
Easy, right?
Those are the exact steps you’re going to use to join your quilt blocks…AND your quilt rows!
It’s a twofer!!
You’re probably thinking “ok, that’s great, Shannon, but how do you wrangle all that material and still have it all line up end to end?”.
If you’ve been following all the tips I’ve shared along the way then you’re blocks should have maintained their shape. If you also stitched with a consistent ¼” seam allowance and pressed your seams following the pressing instructions in the pattern, then your seams are going to nest and line up nicely together!
Which means, at this point all you need to do is place your blocks (or rows) right sides together, pin in place and stitch in place.
The key trick is to always start in the middle, pinning at each seam that nests, as you work your way first to the right and then to the left.
It’s really that simple!
VIDEO
I know how helpful seeing quilting techniques in action can be, so I filmed one for you!
TOP TIPS FOR PIECING YOUR QUILT TOP
Remember to be gentle. No pulling. No tugging. No stretching. No ironing. 😉
Start at the center and work your way out.
Pin at each seam. You know I’m selective on when I pin, but I can’t get through piecing a quilt top without pinning. This will help keep things lined up and prevent shifting.
Set your seams and then finger press your blocks/ rows back before pressing your seam to the side. Refer back to Week 3 and Week 4 for a refresher on why pressing matters.
Take your time and enjoy the process!
GIVEAWAY
This week’s giveaway is sponsored by Pen & Paper Patterns and Stacked Fabric Company!
Do you know those people that instantly bring joy whenever you interact with them? That’s Lindsey to me. I just adore her sunny quirky disposition and love how that spirit comes through in her fun modern patterns. She’s offering you the chance to win 3 of her patterns: Donut Delight, Fresh as a Daisy and Tiny Town (PDF or paper).
I’ve been following Nikki’s journey since before she opened Stacked Fabric Company with the goal of making pretty modern fabric more accessible to us Canadians. And it’s been a joy seeing her business grow. Nikki’s offering a $25 CAD gift card.
To enter the giveaway, you must:
- Be a Shattered Star QAL newsletter subscriber
- Be following @penandpaperpatterns, @stackedfabriccompany and @shannonfraserdesigns on Instagram
- Post a photo on Instagram of your Shattered Star quilt top between November 16, 2020 and November 22, 2020 at 11:59 pm.
- Instagram account must be public.
- Tag @penandpaperpatterns, @stackedfabriccompany and @shannonfraserdesigns
- Include the hashtags #shatteredstarquilt #shatteredstarqal
Week 6 giveaway is open internationally.
Once again, chain piecing will make quick work of stitching those blocks and rows together!
Happy quilting 😊
xo,
Shannon
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