Stop Making Star Quilts the Hard Way!

Using the Techniques Divulged in this Brand New Quilting Resource, Making Star Quilts is Now Easy.
And Your Bed-Size Star Quilt Will be Complete in No Time at All.

Date:

From: Penny Halgren

Greetings Quilter,

You can never have too many star quilts.

And there are so many different ways to make star quilts, it's hard to know which one to make.

Ohio Star Quilt Block	Time and Tide Quilt Block
Diamond Star Quilt Block	Mariners Compass Quilt Block

You can make individual star blocks created by piecing squares, triangles and half-square triangles, such as an Ohio Star or a star like the Time and Tide quilt block.

Using star blocks pieced in this fashion, you can often create some secondary designs in your quilts, which makes for some fun and interesting quilts.

Another way to make a star quilt is to use stars made of diamonds, like the Diamond Star block.

Or you could make multi-point stars, like a Mariners Compass.

Any of these stars could be made to be the centerpiece of a larger quilt instead of just smaller blocks in a quilt.

There are two other stars that are like the grandaddys of all star quilts - the Star of Bethlehem Quilt and Broken Star Quilt.

These quilts are typically made from smaller diamonds that are pieced to create a large 8 pointed star. The Star of Bethlehem (sometimes called Lone Star) has a large 8 pointed star as its centerpiece, while the Broken Star includes diamonds surrounding the center star.

Broken Star Quilt

While these quilts are all very fun to make, they are also a lot of work.

Oh, there are some shortcut, strip piecing methods that will save time and aggravation in piecing the smaller diamonds in order to create the star points, but, still, there are a lot of little pieces.

Recently, several quilting resources have been showing how to create star points using just one large diamond. This technique can create some pretty amazing and beautiful quilts.

But, what if you want something even a little more interesting and dramatic?

What if you could add some dimension into your star quilt?

Lately, we have learned a lot about color and value, and how you can create a 3 dimensional illusion just by the way you position the fabric in your quilt:

• Choose a light source that is away from your quilt
• Using your light source, create a vanishing point and distort your shapes to create the illusion of following the vanishing point
• Instead of looking strictly at color, focus on the value of the fabric - light, medium and dark

What if You Could Create a Broken Star Quilt that had the Illusion of 3 Dimensions - Using a Really Easy Technique?

How cool would that be?

Just imagine - instead of sewing hundreds, if not thousands, of little diamonds together, you could sew just 32 diamonds together and create a bed size quilt featuring a 3 dimensional star?

And, what if you could choose from 10 different types of pieced stars that were easy to sew and went together in a breeze?

Now you can!

Jan Krentz is an award-winning quilter, designer and author who has taught quiltmaking for more than 20 years, and Jan loves stars. When you look at her gallery of quilts, you will see stars. Mostly big stars that are the focus of each quilt.

You can make this beautiful bed-size star quilt - whether you have ever made a star quilt before or not.

So, why go anywhere else but the expert to learn how to do something?

With Jan's newest quilting resource, Quick Star Quilts & Beyond, you will learn how to make these beautiful big stars in a breeze.

Once inside Quick Star Quilts & Beyond, you will see:

• 20 spectacular star quilts featuring 10 different types of pieced stars
• quick piecing techniques using large pieces, not thousands of tiny diamonds
• an inspirational photo gallery of quilts by well-known quilters that will stir your creativity and get you started cutting fabric

As I glanced through my copy of this book, I saw that Jan has included her perspective on pre-washing fabrics.

It's interesting to me that there are such varied opinions, and quilters sometimes feel very strongly one way or the other, but Jan seems like a practical person, and her views make a lot of sense. She suggests pre-washing your fabric if it is:

• a hand woven fabric such as a madras or Guatemalan fabric. These tend to have a looser weave and may shrink a lot. It may be better to have it shrink before it is stitched into your quilt. Plus, fabrics that have a tighter weave tend to hold together longer in your quilt. You can shrink your fabric and create a tighter weave by pre-washing it, and drying it in a hot dryer.
• for the same reason - loose weave fabrics such as homespun, flannel, plaids and brocades
• hand dyed fabric or supersaturated fabric (medium to dark fabrics) along the lines of batiks. These fabrics may bleed some of their excess color - better in the wash water than in the other fabric in your quilt
• blend or specialty fabric you are unfamiliar with - mostly to remove any unwanted chemicals or dyes and allow them to shrink, if that's what they are going to do

In addition, Jan has tips for choosing and cutting large scale prints, stripes and other fabric that will add spark to your quilt and make it stand out.

This resource is so new, that you won't find it on any bookshelf yet. And, if you do a search on amazon.com, you will discover that they are estimating arrival sometime in late March.

You may be thinking "What do I need another quilting book for?" And, trust me, I'm familiar with that thought. And I have tons of quilting books that line my shelves. The thing is, jult like fabric, many of these books are in your local shops for a short time. And, if you don't get them right away, when you want them, you can't get them.

You can make this stunning quilt using Jan's simple techniques. Click on the image to see a larger picture.

Besides, if you are anything like I am, you get great ideas for other quilts, too, when you thumb through the right resources.

As amazing as the quilt on the cover of the book is, take a look at the quilt on the left.

As I read through this book, Jan kept talking about "focus" fabrics - with large scale prints. I was looking at some of the fun pictures of striped diamonds used to make stars, but it wasn't until I turned the page and saw this quilt that I understood what she was talking about.

This beautiful quilt is 57 inches by 57 inches and in the center is a piece of fabric set on point with the Geisha. Each of the surrounding points is a large piece of fabric cut specifically to include the flowers that create the dramatic effect.

Just imagine what you could do with a similar large scale print that you love. Whether it's a print with flowers, fish, the Wizard of Oz, or a fun kid print, your quilt will amaze your family and friends. And using Jan's techniques, you can put this together using large pieces of fabric and sewing straight seams - no set-in seams!

Warning - this may not be for a totally beginning quilter. The techniques in this book assume that you have done some sewing before, and it is especially helpful if you have made more than one quilt.

This is by far an easier way to make these star quilts. Using the techniques in this book and a little patience, you will be amazed at how easy it is to create such a beautiful quilt.

This fantastic resource is available through amazon.com:

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren

www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com

This is a resource that is going on my bookshelf, too. Since I struggled through my first Broken Star quilt, I've wanted to make another one - without all of the pieces. Seeing the quilts in this book makes me realize that I can make one of these in a really short time, using the fabric I have in my stash!