Today I’m sharing this hand quilted Compass Star quilt sewn up using the Wildflower Wovens by Suzy Quilts for Art Gallery Fabrics. This star quilt is finished up with some big stitch hand quilting using the Suzy Quilts Aurifil thread set.
The Compass Star quilt pattern is available in the Quilty Love pattern shop.
Compass Star quilt
The Compass Star quilt pattern came out quite a few years ago now but I still enjoy sewing it up. It’s constructed with quarter square triangles and only needs fat eighths.
The pattern includes lots of quilt sizes from baby to bed size. This Wildflower Wovens version is the throw size.
Wildflower Wovens fabric by Suzy Quilts
I was thrilled to get my hands on the new Wildflower Wovens fabrics by Suzy Quilts for Art Gallery Fabrics. I’m a huge fan of wovens because I love the added texture they bring to a quilt. These wovens have the texture but act more like a regular quilting cotton.
I pre-washed them as I do with all wovens but it really wasn’t necessary since they barely shrunk at all. There is very little fraying too. They definitely have a tighter weave than other wovens.
The Compass Star quilt is a block based mix and match quilt. The colors in this Wildflower Wovens bundle are so gorgeous. I thought they would work well in a quilt like this.
Have you converted to the upside down pinning yet? I don’t know why it took me so long to switch over because it sure is nice! Mostly I pin this way on longer strips like sashing. You can sew without stopping to pull pins since you won’t be sewing through them.
Over the years I’ve tried so many different pins and I think I’ve finally settled on these Magic Pins. I like that they are long, skinny and sharp. They do bend easily when they accidentally make it under the presser foot but that’s to be expected since they are so thin.
Big Stitch Hand quilting
I decided to hand quilt this Wildflower Wovens star quilt! And I decided to use the Aurifil set by Suzy Quilts since it coordinated so nicely. And since these spools are a little smaller, I decided to do a rainbow of color.
So first I arranged the threads in rainbow order and then quilted each row a new color in the rainbow.
I don’t know what to call this quilting design. All of the lines meet in a V in the center.
You can see the design better on my Scrappy Corners quilt below.
So I first find the exact center of the quilt and mark a 90 degree angle. My first stitch just makes an X through the center of the quilt.
Since this quilt isn’t square then that first X does not go through the 4 corners. So you can’t just mark corner to corner. You won’t get that 90 degree angle you need. Instead, start with a 90 degree angle in the center and then extend the line all way to the edge of the quilt.
I like quilting straight lines so this easy design is a nice variation of that. I still get to do straight lines but it’s a little more interesting.
These hand quilted lines are 1 inch spaced.
This Compass Star quilt took me about 7 weeks to hand quilt. I’ve been finding that most of my quilts take about 6-8 weeks to hand quilt. I tend to work on them in the evenings and weekends when I have time or when I feel like it.
I mostly hand quilt because I enjoy the process. I find it relaxing and fun. But then you also end up with a quilt with the best texture in the end. 🙂 You know how I like that quilt texture!
You can check out my other hand quilted quilts here.
Backing, Background and Binding
This Wildflower Wovens Compass Star uses Kona Cotton in snow as the background. This Wildflower Wovens fabric line has a really pretty cloud color I would have loved to use but I couldn’t get the yardage in time. So I just went with a quilting cotton in white instead.
The binding is a navy solid.
The backing is a light peach gingham by Riley Blake. I think the actual color is called Sandstone.
Wildflower Wovens Compass Star Materials
Quilt pattern – Compass Star by Quilty Love
Fabrics:
Stars – Wildflower Wovens by Suzy Quilts for Art Gallery Fabrics
Background – Kona Cotton in Snow
Binding – Solid Navy
Backing – Riley Blake Gingham in Sandstone
Pieced on my Juki 2010q
Hand quilted using the Suzy Quilts Aurifil thread set
Hello, I'm Emily