more stars for my stripes

I've been having fun making the stars for my stripes! Thanks again to all who suggested I use a less than pure white for my light star backgrounds, it makes a big difference.  I searched my stash and found more fabric than I realized I had... stash shopping/diving is a good thing!

See the difference between the two?

I've decided to do half light and half dark stars, 18 of each - I think that should give a lot of variety to the quilt and keep the eye moving.  For the dark backgrounds, I'm keeping a pure white for the star points rather than off-white, I discovered the white adds a lot of punch - look at that sparkle!

When I stopped and looked at the stars I put together and the fabric I pulled for others, I noticed I have quite a bit of blue, I didn't know I had so much blue in my stash!  Or am I subconsciously pulling blue for some reason?

Anyway, these are some of the light stars, a few of which haven't been trimmed down yet. 

My blocks are finishing at 9-1/2" but I've been cutting the squares at a straight 4 inches to make the oversize block.  So I lose a skinny strip when I trim ... oh well!

Because the strings have a lot of busy-ness going on, I wanted to keep the background of the dark blocks either small/tiny prints or reads-as-solids.  The strings don't need a lot of competition.  But the light stars!  Those rascals can have very busy points without adding chaos!  I think these are some nice prints to use on the points.  (Say that fast, three times)

In the light blocks above, notice the green points, and those blue ones - busy prints, both!

Here are some pieces cut out ready for the points, and then some points ready to be trimmed...

And finally, what you've probably been waiting to see...

I did a quick and dirty layout of a few blocks, just to see what I can see.  I'm [almost] positive I'll alternate the stars, light on one row and dark on the other.  I have to decide which way I'll have the strips going though; it would be nice if they could sort of enclose the star blocks, but that won't happen, can't get the math to work..  I can't decide at this point because there will be more blocks per row, twice as many in fact.  Notice again how those white points sparkle - I think this will be a pretty quilt!

Have you all been watching the Bonnie show?  She sews!  she sings!  she gives tips!  My machine is upstairs, else I could sew along, but I enjoy just watching.  Bonnie is a fun sew-along person and she's very accommodating!  She stops to check for comments every so often and she's glad to answer our questions.  IF she's on, she usually posts a notice on her blog; or you can click on the LiveQuiltCam!  tab on her blog.  Look for her - you'll be glad you did!

Sew forth and sew on