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Quilty Love

A quilting creative blog

Star Quilt

Quilty Love Palette Picks – Compass Star Quilt

Today I’m sharing another Compass Star quilt! This one is the Quilty Love Palette Picks Compass Star quilt. This bright and happy star quilt is sewn up using my brand new Palette Picks Bundle for Robert Kaufman!

My Quilty Love Palette Picks bundle is a curated fat quarter bundle using 20 different fabrics from the Robert Kaufman basics lines. And this quilt uses all 20 colors! And… it only uses a fat eighth which means if you want to make one using my new bundle you will have enough left over to make a second quilt like Diamond Lanterns which also uses 20 fat eighths.

I really love how this Compass Star quilt pattern showcases the fabrics in this bundle. When I was working on curating this bundle for Robert Kaufman, Compass Star was my go-to for mocking up the colors. I’m pretty sure it looks good in everything..lol.

The Compass Star quilt pattern and the Robert Kaufman Palette Picks Bundle are both available in the Quilty Love Shop.

Quilty Love Palette Picks Compass Star Quilt

Curating this bundle for Robert Kaufman was such a fun project! It was a little stressful for an indecisive person like myself but still so much fun. I pulled in all of my favorites for this colorful bundle. It had to have blues and it had to have pinks. And lately I’ve really loved a touch of coral so I brought that in along with nectarine. And then lastly, some yellows as an accent. All of the pretty brights play so well with the neutrals I brought in also.

And it’s full of texture! I love bringing texture into my quilts whenever possible so I was excited that I could add so many different substrates to this bundle. There are some Essex linens, Manchester, a little bit of sparkle and of course quilting cottons. I’m not afraid to mix all of these together into one quilt and will do that often.

Compass Star Quilt Pattern

Compass Star is a mix and match quilt. Once you make all of your cuts from your fat eighths, you mix and match the pieces for each block. I love the mix and matching step and it doesn’t hurt that it provides some pretty photo ops 😉

Compass Star includes instructions for a baby size, a throw size, a twin size, a queen size and a king size! I have all of the quilt sizes covered for you including all of the bed sizes.

Easy modern star quilt

Compass Star is a good ambitious beginner quilt. It has some fun piecing techniques but also has you trimming down pieces so they end up exactly the size you need. The extra trimming step really helps with precision and more squared up quilt blocks.

White Essex linen background

I used a nice bright white as the background of this Quilty Love Palette Picks Compass Star quilt to really help those stars pop. Since some of the fabrics in the Quilty Love Palette Picks bundle are a little lighter, a bright white works well as a background.

To keep the texture going in this star quilt I used Essex linen in the color white. Not only does it add pretty texture, it adds warmth too! Essex linen quilts end up so much warmer than regular cotton quilts.

I really enjoy quilting with linens and haven’t had any problem with them yet. Linen is more prone to fraying and shrinking so a shorter stitch length is always a good idea. This blog post has some tips and tricks for sewing with linen in your quilts.

Long Arm Quilting

I sent this Compass Star quilt off to Knot and Thread for quilting. I always have Kait choose the quilting design for me and surprise me. She never disappoints and it’s so fun to be surprised when it comes back. I love the panto-graph she chose for this modern star quilt.

Classic Yarn Dyed Essex linen backing

This fun and happy Compass Star quilt is also backed in an Essex linen. So between the white linen background and the backing it’s a nice and heavy quilt. The backing is one of the fabrics from the bundle.

The quilt backing is Essex linen Classic yarn Dyed Woven in the color natural. It has a nice subtle grid design. I love grid fabrics as backings.

Quilt binding

This Quilty Love Palette Picks Compass Star quilt is finished off with a kona Blush Pink binding. Blush pink is also in the Palette Picks bundle. It’s actually one of my favorite colors in the bundle. It’s a really pretty pinky-purpley color.

Pre-washing linen fabrics in quilts

This one will crinkle up nicely with all of that linen! Linen does tend to get extra crinkly and is more prone to shrinking than a quilting cotton. I rarely pre-wash myself but it’s never a bad idea to pre-wash these fabrics. Especially if you don’t want to lose inches off of your quilt. Since I didn’t pre-wash any of these fabrics, I wouldn’t be surprised it it shrinks down about 5-6 inches per side with the first wash.

The first time I made a linen quilt and washed it I was shocked by how much it shrank! Now I just expect that a linen quilt will shrink more than a non linen one.

Materials Used:
Quilt Pattern: Compass Star Quilt Pattern by Quilty Love
Fabrics: Quilty Love Palette Picks bundle
Background: Essex linen in white
Backing: Yarn Dyed Essex Linen in Natural
Binding: Kona Cotton Blush Pink
Pieced on my Janome MC6700p
Quilted by Knot and Thread

Compass Star Baby quilt – The Ruby Star Society one

I have the cutest Compass Star baby quilt to share with you today! I actually made this quilt top last spring but recently had it quilted and finished.

Compass Star is one of my favorite star quilts to make and I’ve made a few of them by now. Recently I made one using my new Quilty Love Palette Picks bundle.

This might be the first Compass Star baby quilt that I have made though! Compass Star is a really great stash quilt as it only uses fat eighths. So for this baby sized star quilt you would only need nine fat eighths from your stash.

I used the leftover Smol Ruby Star Society fabrics from my Hopscotch II quilt. So technically I didn’t even have fat eighths. I just cut each block piece from the fabrics I had left. I ended up using more than nine fabrics to make that work. I also used a solid as an accent since I didn’t have enough fabric.

The Compass Star quilt pattern is available in the Quilty Love pattern shop.

Hopscotch quilt by Emily of quiltylove.com using Smol fabrics

Quarter Square Triangle star block

Compass Star uses quarter square triangles. I love quarter square triangles! They are a no waste method which is always great.

It might seem a little intimidating to make quarter square triangles but they are actually pretty easy! The Compass Star quilt pattern walks you through each step. It also makes the quarter square triangles over sized so you can trim perfectly.

Compass Star Baby Quilt

I couldn’t resist using up the leftover Ruby Star Society Smol fabrics so I decided to make up a baby sized Compass Star quilt. Compass Star is a nice and easy quarter square triangle star quilt pattern. It goes together with quarter square triangles.

If you have never made quarter square triangles, they are fun to make! I also have you make larger and then trim to size for better precision. So you trim them just like you might half square triangles. I personally enjoy trimming and find those precise squares satisfying.

Fat Eighth Friendly star quilt pattern

Compass Star is a fat eighth friendly quilt pattern. I love fat eighth quilts because they really stretch your fabric. Plus a fat eighth bundle is a lot less expensive than a fat quarter bundle when buying an entire fabric collection. A fat eighth is half of a fat quarter. They measure about 9″ x 21″.

I have a few fat eighth friendly patterns in the Quilty Love pattern shop.

Modern quarter square triangle star quilt

Compass Star is a modern quarter square triangle star quilt. It’s a nice and easy quilt to sew up. I think I made this baby version in about a day or two.

Compass Star looks great in solids, prints or a mix of both.

All the quilt sizes

Compass Star includes instructions for a baby size, a throw size, a twin size, a queen size and king size quilt! I’ve included all of the quilt sizes including the bed size quilts.

I don’t make baby size quilts that often but they sure are a fast finish! I love this one so much though that I kind of wish it was a throw size…haha. These Ruby Star Society Smol fabrics are such a beautiful fabric line and definitely a new favorite. It’s those navy prints in the fabric collection that get me!

Ruby Star Society Speckled background

I’ve been trying to branch out from my go-to white backgrounds in quilts lately and have been gravitating towards subtle prints like this Ruby Star Society Speckled fabric. It has just enough print to keep it interesting but is light enough to let the main fabrics shine. Ruby Star has some really great lighter basics that work well for this. Plus these subtle prints are so much more practical than a white fabric.

Peppered Cotton Wideback

I finished off this Compass Star baby quilt with some leftover Peppered Cotton wideback fabric from other quilts. It’s not the most exciting backing but it’s a classic grey and I’m all about using what you have available.

Binding

The binding on this Compass Star baby quilt is a Ruby Star Society grid fabric. I used to use such neutral bindings but over the past year or so I’m finding myself using bolder options that really frame the quilt.

Long arm quilting

I sent this Compass Star baby quilt off to my quilter to be quilted! This is the first time I’ve had a baby sized quilt long arm quilted. I actually don’t mind the quilting process and a baby size is the easiest size to quilt so I’ve always done them myself.

However, my time is a lot more limited these days with the toddler and quilting is the obvious step to take off my plate. I had good intentions of quilting this baby quilt but after it sat as a quilt top for well over six months I decided it was time to send it off.

Jenae of Vintage Stitch quilted this baby quilt for me. She chose this adorable quilting design. I really love how this baby quilt turned out that I may never quilt my own baby quilts again..ha.

Compass Star baby quilt resources

Quilt Pattern: Compass Star by Quilty Love
Fabrics: Smol fabrics by Ruby Star Society
Background: Speckled by Ruby Star Society
Backing: Peppered Cotton Wide Back
Binding: Ruby Star Society Grid
Pieced on my Janome MC6700p
Long arm quilted by Vintage Stitch

The Christmas Compass Star quilt

I can’t believe I never shared this Christmas Compass Star quilt on the blog!

You can find the Compass Star quilt pattern in my shop.

Christmas Compass Star Quilt Pattern

The Compass Star quilt pattern came out a few years. Star quilts make the prettiest Christmas quilts.

It’s funny posting these photos because this quilt was made about two years ago in our last house. It’s a little nostalgic seeing this quilting studio again. 🙂

Compass Star is a really fun star quilt to make up. It goes together pretty easily with quarter square triangles. I really enjoy making quarter square triangles and they don’t have any waste so that is a plus!

Fat quarter or Fat Eighth friendly quilt pattern

The fabrics in this Christmas Compass Star were a curated fat eighth bundle I bought from Pink Castle. It’s a mix of different fabric lines all in pretty Christmas colors. I love a really great traditional Christmas color fabric mix like this one. It’s all reds, greens and some pretty neutrals with gold accents.

Quilt Background – Using Essex Linen

The background of this Christmas quilt is Essex linen in the color black. Essex linen in the darker colors really makes the fabrics pop and helps keep the quilt nice and festive. Plus, Essex is a really WARM fabric so I love using it for holiday quilts that will be out in the dead of winter.

Essex does shrink quite a bit and fray pretty easily so I use a pretty small stitch length like 1.8. I wrote an entire blog post about quilting with Essex Linen here if you want to know more!

Throw size quilt pattern – Comes in all the quilt sizes

This Christmas Compass Star is the throw size. The pattern includes instructions for a baby size, throw size, twin size, queen size and a king size. So pretty much any size quilt you could possibly need!

I’m kind of kicking myself for not taking better photos of this quilt. It really is a pretty one. The dark Essex background is a little more challenging to photograph. I took these photos quickly before selling it in my annual quilt sale last November.

Gingham backing fabric

The backing on this Christmas quilt is a Bonnie and Camille Gingham that I had on hand. Isn’t it the perfect Christmasy quilt backing?! It’s an older print so is probably out of print by now. Here is a similar gingham print.

You can see I didn’t bother to match the pattern on the backing. I rarely do to be honest. It’s an extra step I don’t like taking but it wouldn’t have been hard with this print and then the backing would have looked seamless.

Quilt Binding

I used the leftover cut off backing fabric as the binding on this Christmas Compass Star. I love that it uses up that extra fabric and this one worked so well as a binding print. I don’t mind that there is no contrast on the back side between the binding and backing.

I tend to use that left over fabric as binding more times than not.

Long arm quilting

Knot and Thread quilted this Christmas quilt for me. I always have her pick the quilting design and I really love this one that she chose. It’s a pretty festive quilting design that works well with these blocks.

Annual Christmas Quilts

I usually make at least one Christmas quilt each year. I really enjoy sewing Christmas quilts around Christmas time so they aren’t usually getting done in time for the season. But I’m totally fine with that as quilting is all about the process for me. The last thing we need in this house is another quilt…haha so I quilt purely for the joy of quilting.

I believe this was my 2018 Christmas quilt. I’ll be posting the 2019 Christmas quilt next as I just got it back from the quilter. 🙂

You can find Compass Star in my pattern shop.

The automatic download is available here.

The mailed paper option is available here.

Quilty Stars Quilt – the happy scrappy one

This Scrappy Quilty Stars quilt may be a new favorite! I’m pretty sure I’ve claimed no less than 25 quilts as my favorite so far…ha.

This may be by far the most satisfying quilt I’ve made. The quilt top is 100% fabrics scraps!

Quilty Stars is available in the Quilty Love pattern shop.

I made this scrappy version during the quilt along last summer. It really was an enjoyable one to make with all that scrappy goodness.

Scrap buster quilt pattern

I wrote the Quilty Stars quilt pattern with scraps in mind! I love using up my scrap stash every few quilts. This one is a really great scrap buster! Especially if you use low volume scraps as the background like this.

My low volume background is not always very subtle but it’s one of my favorite scrap bins to dig through. It’s usually just as full as my blue bin.

Quilty Stars quilt pattern

Quilty Stars is fat quarter and scrap friendly. The quilt pattern includes instructions for a baby size, throw size, twin size and a king size.

I would call Quilty Stars a confident beginner quilt pattern. This quilt uses squares and half square triangles. Majority of my patterns have you making the half square triangles too big and then trimming to size. That really helps keep them nice and precise and that’s much easier on beginner quilters.

I somehow end up with more blue fabric scraps than any other color and so far I’ve made a couple of scrappy blue quilts. They are my favorite 🙂

Quilty Stars is perfect for those 2.5in square fabric scraps we all end up with.

Free Motion stippling on the Janome MC6700p

This scrappy Quilty Stars quilt is quilted with a Janome MC6700p. I tried free motion quilting this one! I have only free motion quilted a handful of times but it sure is fun!

I sure could use the practice so this was a good practice quilt with it’s busy scrappy fabrics. I just did stippling and let me tell you, it’s not as easy as it looks! You will feel like you are doing a terrible job as you are in the thick of it but then when you step back it always looks better.

There really is only one way to get better… and that is by actually doing. So I say just jump in and don’t be afraid to “ruin” a few quilts. I promise it will look better than you think in the end 🙂

Free motion quilting really is relaxing and actually pretty fast.

Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com

I finally got around to photographing this one a few days ago. These photos were all taken with my iphone! I used this quilt as an example in my Pinterest course, Pin it for Sales. The entire photo and photo editing process is included in the course.

Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com

Free motion stippling quilting really gives a quilt some great texture.

Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com

The binding on this scrappy quilt is an older Add it up print. The backing is a Bonnie and Camille gingham from my stash.

Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com

One of the things I love about scrappy quilts is the memories from all of the different fabrics. So many good fabrics all mixed together into one quilt!

Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com
Quilty Stars quilt pattern by Emily of quiltylove.com

I made these sample blocks below in preparation for the quilt along. I really love this star quilt made up in one color but I’m tempted to use these blocks to make a multi color version.

You can make up your own Quilty Stars quilt using your scraps and the Quilty Stars quilt pattern.