Lonestar squares

You might have seen earlier posts where I described the Craftsy 2012 Block of the month free lessons.  I just love Craftsy and can't say enough good things about their quilting classes and instructors.  One of the classes I paid to sign up to is Magical Jelly Roll Quilts with Kimberly Einmo. 

Kimberly gives patterns and instruction on 5 different quilts one of which is Lonestar Strip Magic.  This involves picking 4 jelly Roll strips  2 of which to be identical or co-ordinating colour.  The strips are sewn to 2 other  strips and then diamond shapes cut at a 45 degree angle are created to make the star.  Kimberly's method is all straight sewing, no set in seams and I think the block looks great.  There is something about stars that everybody loves!

I decided not to do a single star with a checkerboard border as suggested in the pattern, rather, to make 4 lonestars and create a lap quilt for my Aunt and Uncle.  Their living room is painted a pale neutral grey with a red chimney and having some Bella Solids on hand I bought some beautiful red and cream fabric from my local quilt shop.  This was my mocked up design on Photoshop elements:

I eventually abandoned the checkerboard altogether and came up with this simple sashing.

I didn't get it done in time for Christmas last year but have plenty of time to baste, quilt and bind it for next Christmas!

Great design.  The biased edges gave me a little trouble and next time I'd use starch to keep them from expanding.  I didn't get one block quite right but I'm hoping it will be less noticeable after quilting which I'm hoping to do by hand.  Nothing handmade is every robot perfect and I like the result.  Here's hoping my Aunt and Uncle do too.