Hive 4 - Rainbow Stars Tutorial for June

Hi There....I'm Tori Manzi and I'm your Queen Bee for June. This is my 4th year participating in the Stash Bee. I'm a wife and mother of two grown girls living in idyllic Camden Maine.  If you've ever seen the old movie Peyton Place...well it was filmed here. Its a beautiful small town right in the mid-coast. 

 My goal with quilting this year is to finish up projects before starting a new one.  And boy do I have a lot of unfinished projects. Its called Crafters Attention Deficit Disorder.  So instead of starting another quilt, I'm asking all of my bee mates to help me finish the one I started in Hive 1 for 2016 Stash Bee.  

I found this block on Pinterest that I liked but couldn't find a tutorial...I didn't know what the blocks "name" was so I tried all kinds of different descriptors to see if I could find one....but no luck.  So here's my attempt at a tutorial for a block for a quilt that I've named "Rainbow Star Patch".  I love the colors of the rainbow in quilts and I've done a number of Mini's that really showcase these colors.  I like the bright colors more so than the "primary" colors.  So here is my block. 

Pretty Simple....sixteen 4.5 in squares with a star.  I used Solids and tone on tone fabrics only...no prints.  I did get to use some of my Benartex Fossil Fern fabrics on some of the blocks I've made for this project and they worked well.  Here is a sampling of the colors I pulled from my stash.  Feel free to use any "bright" color you have in your stash as long as its all the same tones and they "blend well". 

Fabrics and Cutting info:

From solids/tonal prints - cut 14 - 4.5" blocks

From White - 1 - 4.5" block

8 - 2 3/4" blocks

I made each block I did based around one color scheme.  I used two solids and two tonal prints for each block.   First I cut my 15 blocks of "color" fabric (4.5" each) and one square of white fabric (I used Kona White).  Then I laid out my pieces for the color combination that worked best.

I then cut out 8 -  2 3/4" squares for the "star" points.  I drew a diagonal line from corner to corner on one of the white blocks for a straight sewing line.  Then placing it on one corner of one of the blocks adjacent to the white square, I sewed directly on the line. 

Once I sewed that block on I then trimmed the corner off 1/4" from the line we had just sewn.

Turn over and press the seam toward the white.  The pictures show pressing towards the teal fabric in these photos, but I went back and pressed them the other way because the fabric worked better that way.  

After pressing repeat on the other side of the color block.  Trim to a 4.5" square.  This will become two of your eight star points.  

Repeat for the other three adjacent blocks.  Lay out your blocks again for the layout you like the most.  The block is a square so it doesn't matter which of the four center blocks you make the center of the star because the blocks can be turned all different ways when I figure out my layout.

Sew each row together and then sew the rows together and voila!  Block should be 16.5" square.

I'm planning on this being a king size quilt for my bed so I made a bunch of my own and then thanks to my past bee mates and some hive crashers I have 19 blocks.  I'll need at least 36 to complete my quilt.  Here are some pictures of the blocks/colors I have so far.

Here are ones I made:

and these are from Stash Bee friends:

I really love the bright colors!!!!

Thank you to everyone for helping make this stash bee experience a fun one!