I started this quilt in December, when bright leaves were clinging bravely to the branches of our maple, sweet gum and pistache trees. Autumn faded so beautifully this year, as it does every year, but the knowledge that it was our last on this land made it even dearer.

My first Starbright Stars quilt was happy-scrappy, so it intrigued me to make a second in a very controlled, moody color scheme. The dark gray background fabric was inspired by the way that serendipitous fabric stack shone on my black cutting mat.

I love the visual complexity of the piecing, paired with the fact that it has no y-seams, partial seams or such. No special treatment here! Just machine piecing straight and true. You can learn how in my Angled course, currently enrolling and then unrolling at your customized pace. Starbright Stars is one of many quilt patterns included with the course.

Sponsor of the Week

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Christmas week I took a break from my longarm quilting work. Autumn Fading Starbright Stars fell nicely into that vacuum, allowing me ample time to lavish quilting on this project. I chose an existing diamond pattern for the background areas and then created a super-fancy star pattern for my 6-point stars. But, after quilting the background fabrics, I fell hard for the slightly puffy un-quilted stars.

I couldn’t bear to flatten them, even with my exciting new pattern. Instead I quilted simple asterisks in the stars. Simple also is good, sometimes best.

These stars are incredibly pet-able. I know someone is going to love that!

This throw quilt is backed with black Uncorked fabric, courtesy of Windham Fabrics and available here. It has a subtle metallic sparkle that elevates it from natural to luxe. Loving it for a backing!

Autumn Fading Starbright is all folded and tucked away, ready to ship to a new home. It’s listed now in my Handmades shop. Thanks for supporting my work!