Use your Oddly-shaped Scraps with this Free Quilt Pattern by Plains and Pine
My name is Lindlee Smith and the one-woman operation behind Plains and Pine where I’ve been designing modern star quilt patterns since 2020. My goal in designing quilt patterns is to make intermediate and advanced star quilt patterns less intimidating. In addition to quilt patterns, I hold online workshops and am launching a membership called Quilt Company in February.
I am excited to share this free pattern called the Wild Star Quilt with you! And something fun to go along with it (keep reading until the end…).
About the Wild Star Quilt Pattern
I have a big goal in 2023 – to not buy any new fabric (!!). Crazy, I know… But I want to start using what I already have rather than be tempted to buy the next new fabric line or shop every sale. I want to be more intentional about what I have.
I don’t know about you, but I have drawers full of oddly shaped fabric – saved from projects past that are too precious to throw away but hard to use in a quilt so they just sit unused for years. So I decided to combine my love of Lone Star quilts with these odd, beloved scraps to create the Wild Star quilt.
There are 2 sizes in this pattern: Baby and Throw. To make this quilt you will need assorted scraps, foundation fabric, and background fabric.
What is Foundation Fabric?
Foundation fabric is a fabric used as a template for your diamonds, as well as a stabilizer when sewing the small pieces of fabric together. You can use muslin, a light colored quilting cotton, or the wrong side of a cotton print from your stash that you don’t love anymore. For my quilt I used both muslin and a cheap quilting cotton that I had purchased in my early days of quilting that was very thin.
Cut the Foundation Fabric diamonds
First, you will cut the diamonds from your foundation fabric of choice. You can either use the templates provided in the pattern or cut them with your quilting ruler (my preferred method). If you are printing the templates from the pattern, make sure your print settings are set to 100% scale.
If you use your ruler to cut the foundation fabric, first cut the fabric to the width you need for the quilt size you are making, then line up the 45 degree line on your ruler with either the top or bottom of the strip, and cut the selvages off on one side.
You will then line up the 45 degree line of your ruler again with the top or bottom of the strip, and the left side of the ruler will be either 6” or 8” depending on which quilt size you are making.
Tip: If this is your first time cutting diamonds with this method, you can print off the template to double check your cuts.
Gather Your Scraps
Once you have your foundation fabric diamonds cut, you can start sewing your fabric to the diamonds. You can use a variety of sizes of fabric if you want the wild look or you can use long strips if you want to make a version more like a string quilt.
I like the wild look so I start with 2 pieces of fabric and sew them right sides together on top of the foundation fabric.
Then I finger press the top piece over. I use a tool called a quilt seam roller to “finger press” my seams.
Then, place another piece of fabric along one side of the stitched pieces (right sides together), covering the edges of the pieces. Sew a ¼” seam and finger press the seam again.
When the diamond is covered (and before I trim), I spray with starch and press with a hot iron.
After the diamonds are pressed, it is time to trim. Turn the diamond over so the foundation fabric is facing up. Trim the excess fabric to the size diamond you need. Make sure you use your ruler to trim to the correct measurement and do not rely entirely on the foundation fabric because the foundation fabric might have gotten pulled in a bit as you sewed the fabric onto it.
My method for trimming is to trim one side, then flip it around and trim the opposite side. Then I will trim the adjacent sides.
After you have 8 trimmed diamonds, you will sew the background fabric to the diamonds as shown in the pattern. I used Kona Black as the background and a scrappy binding from leftover binding pieces of past quilts.
I hope you enjoy this method for using your scraps! If you make this quilt, I would love to see the version you make so please share a photo of your quilt on Instagram with the hashtags: #wildstarquilt and #plainsandpinepatterns.
My quilt was longarm quilted by Ashlee Doyle of Crinkly Quilts.
Join the Sew Along
I have decided to host a short and sweet 7 day sew along for this pattern so gather your scraps and let’s get sewing! Sign up HERE. The sew along starts on Wednesday, January 25th and ends on Tuesday, January 31st. Join me and a community of quilters for some quilt company and a chance to win one of the daily prizes throughout the week!
More Inspiration
I wanted to leave you with more Wild Star inspiration, so I’m sharing three beautiful versions from my quilt pattern testers.
The first is by Taimi (on Instagram @sisuquiltingco).
The next version is by Haylie (on Instagram @the_thrifted_quilter).
The last version I am sharing today is by Paula (on Instagram @quiltsbypaulajean).
If you have any questions on the pattern, do not hesitate to reach out! You can email me at lindlee@plainsandpine.com or send me a DM on Instagram @plainsandpine.
A Bit More About Me
I grew up on the Plains of northeast Montana and now live in Bozeman, MT with my husband, two young kids, and dog. You can usually find me hanging out with my toddler and baby or doing some early morning or naptime sewing with a big mug of coffee when the house is quiet.
I love to get outside when I’m not in my sewing corner – spending time in my garden, going for a walk, and a hike in the mountains are a few of my happy places.
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