[finished] Big Dipper quilts

Done and done! I finished not one but TWO quilts in the past month. I first had the idea for these quilts 3 years ago, and of course I immediately bought fabric. I wanted the stars to be different shapes and sizes, relative to their brightness in the actual night sky. I also wanted a lot of open space and just a few colors. I drew a couple sketches, did a little math, and then put the project on the back burner for quite a while… until I had a new baby and a quilt show to motivate me 😉

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I designed paper piecing templates for the stars. All the blocks are the same size – 4 inches – but all the stars are a bit different. 

I used Susie’s Magic Binding Tutorial for the faux-piped binding. Looks complicated, but it’s not! This first version is a baby quilt, finished at 36″ x 50″. 

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I was stumped on how to quilt this for a few days. I would’ve loved to do free-motion spirals or waves around the stars, reminiscent of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, but that’s above my skill level for now. I settled on horizontal wavy lines, done with a walking foot. I carefully outlined the stars and made sure not to  quilt through them. The result is a pretty snugly baby quilt! I finished the quilt just in time to wash it and snap a few pictures before I sent it off to its new home.

The second version is a twin-size quilt for my son, and my entry into the “Minnesota Modern” exhibit for the Minnesota Quilters annual show. I still used just 2 colors for the stars, but I used 9 different batiks for the background – 3 waxed patterns, and 6 marbles. I really like the texture and depth! I enlarged the paper piecing templates to make 5″ finished blocks.

A photo posted by @carriebee04 on May 19, 2016 at 7:51am PDT

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The big dipper asterism (not a constellation) fits on the top of a twin mattress. I finished with a scrappy binding that blends with the background. Expect more pictures (and a pattern!) when I get it back from the quilt show!