Purchase Rainbow Star Pattern
You know I love making paper piecing patterns. As soon as I have an idea in my head, I love to draw it up using Adobe Illustrator, draft the pattern and then can’t wait to see it transformed into a quilt block. However, I also hate unfinished projects. Last week I had to make that choice. Even though I had a couple of patterns drafted and waiting to be be sewn, I noticed that I also had accumulated three quilt-tops that needed to be quilted. Mustering up monumental willpower, I put the stack of printed patterns aside and pulled out the Rainbow Star quilt-top from the stack and started working on it, and you know what? I was happy I did.
Photo of the Milky Way taken during a camping trip at Tioga Pass, California
I was captivated by the night sky when I was about 5 years old. It is one of my earliest memories. I remember looking up at the night sky during a power outage and being mesmerized by the pinpricks of light, and that was enough to last a lifetime. Over the years, I acquired a couple of telescopes and started studying the scientific aspects of the night sky. I get so much of my inspiration from the night sky, even when designing quilt blocks.
Purchase Starlight Converging Pattern
It all started with this block called Starlight Converging to represent the birth of a star. This was going to be the only block I was going to make – a small 10″x10″ wall hanging.
This block was put aside for a week or so because I was trying to figure out how I was going to quilt this piece. In the meantime, I was reading a astronomy paper on stars and I wanted to make an opposite block – Starlight Diverging!
Purchase Starlight Diverging Pattern
Starlight Diverging was inspired by supernova explosion. It is not hard, but it contains a lot of sections. Each colour has two sections, and there are 12 colours. However, each section has only 3-4 parts and I had nothing to line up. That was the pay-off for having that many sections.
Purchase A New Star Pattern
How could I have Starlight Converging and Starlight Diverging and not have a New Star?! This was easiest and super quick to make. I found it very helpful to cut the white pieces out first.
Purchase Rainbow Star Pattern
I put all the blocks together to make a wall hanging called Rainbow Star.
Because I occasionally draw/paint, I wanted to make a colour wheel wall hanging one day. These blocks presented a perfect opportunity to use rainbow colours or colour wheel colours to represent the visible light spectrum. This wall hanging was my take on merging two of my passions together – art and science.
I used a 1.5″ sash between each block and a 2″ border around the blocks. I wanted the wall hanging to have a feel of a set of framed photos. I used mitred corners for that reason and was so proud of them since this is second time ever I have done them!
I had a lot of fun putting the colours together. All of these star quilt patterns are available individually, or as a collection on Shop.
-Soma
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