INtroducing My New Block of the Week: Under the Stars

Let me introduce you to Under the Stars-my 2018 Free Block of the Week. I love sitting out on a dark night and looking up at the stars so it is not surprising that Star Blocks are among my favorites.
Each block finishes at 16". I am doing this in two colorways: a Red and White and a Color verion percect for a scrappy look.   Also included will be directions for two setting variations
of the blocks after all blocks have been completed.

This is a brand new adventure for me and I want to thank all of those who have encouraged me along the way to step out and do this.  My plan is to post a new block every Monday beginning February 5th.

The first thing we all need to do of course is pick out our fabrics.  I have links in my Free Patterns page for everything you need to know to get started.  If you click on one of the quilts pictured above it will also take you to the requirements for that quilt.  Now let me share with you how I go about choosing my fabrics.  I have decided to shop my stash for the most part.  Knowing I want to do a Red and White quilt, but feeling like I wanted to add a little more depth I make sure my fabrics have a variety of tones-meaning some light, medium, dark reds are chosen.  If you look at the photo below where my fabric choices have been replaced with a single color you get an idea of how choosing various tones can increase the impact of the quilt.

So here is the palette I have settled on for this quilt.  I picked up these greys a few weeks ago after seeing some other quilts that were using them,  I had never considered greys  before so am trying something new.  I also am using a variety of whites-there slight variation will also add extra interest to the look of the blocks.  They are all very similar as I wanted to stick close to a pure white, but there is enough variation to add depth.

I will be using the Alternate #2 Setting for this quilt so will need to add a black eventually.

For the color version I pulled out several jewel tones-again notice how making sure to have several tones of a color add interest to the overall quilt.

This is what I ended up with for this one.  I will need to purchase some more white on white fabric though.  That will mean a trip to a quilt shop!  The closest is 21 miles away and my favorits is a two hour drive-good thing my beloved husband likes road trips-even road trips in Oregon...in the winter...with snow on the ground.  

I have decided I would like to do Alternate Setting #1 with these blocks. 
Setting them on point will make them large enouogh for a bed quilt
​so I will be able to sleep under the stars whenever I want.

As we get under way I hope you will join us over at
my Facebook Group page which is linked here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tuningmyheartsewalong/
Come and and share your fabric choices and get inspiration from others as well.
Until then...
Happy Quilting!!