Yes I have a quilting bucket list. The #1 quilt on that bucket list is a Broken Star. I have the Lone Star down pat so I knew I would be able to make a Broken Star.
Back in March I was hired to make a quilt for a really nice lady named Hope. She had the material, but not the time or ideas. She showed me the material, told me she wanted king or queen size and I spent a week looking at patterns and narrowed it down to 3. Two were applique and the third was a Broken Star. She decided on the Broken Star.
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| My Broken Star mach up to show her. |
For the next 5 days I spent all my free time at the library, fabric store and online searching for a Broken Star pattern. I found pictures, but no pattern. A book at the library had a pattern for the Lone Star with measurements for all sizes crib-king. The crib size said the star was finished to 51". Perfect! A Broken Star (BS) is basicily a Lone Star surrounded by 3 more Lone Stars broken up (get it's broken). Looking at it I realized that the Broken Star is twice as big as a Lone Star so the finished size of the stars would 102" just about the size of a king quilt. Add a border and it's perfect!
So let's get started...
This BS is 32 pieced diamonds made of 7 pieced strips. Each strip is made up of 7-2" fabric strips sewn together and cut at 45* angle.
Cut the following to make the 3 sets for the 32 diamonds:
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| The 13 fabrics I'm using lined up. |
Fabric 1 - 3
Fabric 2 - 6
Fabric 3 - 9
Fabric 4 - 12
Fabric 5 - 15
Fabric 6 - 18
Fabric 7 - 21
Fabric 8 - 18
Fabric 9 - 15
Fabric 10 - 12
Fabric 11 - 9
Fabric 12 - 6
Fabric 13 - 3
Sew them into strip sets as fallows:
Fabrics: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7
Fabrics: 2-3-4-5-6-7-8
Fabrics: 3-4-5-6-7-8-9
Fabrics: 4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Fabrics: 5-6-7-8-9-10-11
Fabrics: 6-7-8-9-10-11-12
Fabrics: 7-8-9-10-11-12-13
***drop each of the fabrics down by 1 1/2" as you sew to get the least amount of waste***
Iron Iron Iron
When I learned to make the Lone Star it was suggested that ironing happen with some liquid starch mixed with water to help keep the biased edges from warping.
Once the strip sets have been ironed you can begin to cut at the 45*... It's hard, but easier than expected. Lay the fabric on your cutting surface.
Line your ruler's 45* line up with one of the seams and make your first cut to even the top of the strips. The next cut will be made in the same manner but the 2" line will be at the top of the fabric. Cut as many of these types of strips as you can from each set.
Remember that the sets are cut at angles so the seams wont meet up at the edges they need to be a 1/4" off so that when sewn the seams lineup. Pin the sets together so that fabric 1 is to fabric 2 and so on.
I put my pin cup behind my machine to put the pins in quickly. Worked like a charm.
After sewing all the sets together you will have 32 diamonds.
Measure the upper outside edge to figure the size of the background squares. (The book directions said 18", but mine were closer to 15 1/2") you will need 20 squares in that size and 2-25" squares. Cut the 25" squares from each corner to the opposite corner to make a total of 8 triangles.
The book I found at the library said to sew the upper right square to the diamond then sew each of the diamond square combos together. ***Do this for only 8 of the diamonds.***
After you have sewn the 8 diamonds and backgrounds together to make the center star sew the rest of the 24 diamonds together in groups of 3. I then sewed them to the background squares and the loose edges together. The middle two empty spaces on each side get one of the triangles the rest get the squares... To end up like this... |
| Broken Star quilt top un-quilted |
Next up will be my quilting...
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