Another finish from last year that’s hanging in this year’s QuiltCon is Starbound. Here’s how it came about.

Starbound is based on Sunday sketch #369, which I posted on 23 July 2023. You can read more about the concept in the original blog post, but basically I was playing with block and colour placement, using combinations of 2 versions of 2 block types to create 4 unique quadrants.

I originally planned to make the design into a quilt using a bright orange and a dark green. I even took the fabrics to a quilty retreat with the goal of cutting out all the pieces. But at some point I put the orange fabric down on a hot pink fabric I’d also brought… and thought Oooooohhhhhh. Suddenly the orange and green combo didn’t look so exciting after all. I made a test block (not something I normally do), and decided I liked that super-vibrant pairing better. I didn’t have enough of the pink fabric (Kona Pomegranate, I think) to feel confident making a start on that retreat, but luckily I had more at home. Yay!

The good thing about this design is that there are only 4 block types, and 2 of them are plain squares. The bad thing is that the remaining 2 blocks are 8-pointed stars, and there are 49 of each colour (pink on orange, and orange on pink). Each 8-pointed star requires 4 triangle-in-a-square blocks, and each of those requires 2 skinny triangles and 1 wider triangles…. anyway, it’s a lot of cutting and piecing. Good thing I don’t mind a bit of repetitive sewing.

It took me awhile, but I eventually pieced all the stars, then put them together to assemble the quilt top. I sent it to Valerie Cooper of Sweet Gum Quilting for quilting. She used slightly wavy 1/2″ lines in an orange thread.

I used a Kaffe Fassett print for the back – a much more saturated and in-your-face print than I would normally use, but I like to try matching colours on the backs of my quilts. It’s not a perfect match, but I can live with it.

I faced the quilt (matching the facing to the orange on one half of the quilt and the pink on the other), and Tara Glastonbury very kindly took the photo and worked her magic with Photoshop to handle the colours (which I struggled to recreate in my own pics).

And at the last minute, I decided to rotate the quilt so the darker half runs vertically instead of horizontally, and the quilting runs across the quilt instead of down. That combination kinda reminds me of a flag – stars and stripes, in a way.

And finally… I chose the name ‘Starbound’ because the design’s full of stars that are bound on all sides (by squares), but the word also feels positive and aspirational – like the quilt’s about to make a journey across the universe. Well, across the world, anyway! Starbound will hang in the ‘Modern Traditionalism’ category at QuiltCon 2024 in Raleigh, NC, USA from Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 February.