Happy June! Are you joining in for the Economy Star Parade sew-along? It’s time to be plotting your color scheme and choosing fabric for those stars. Here’s how to get started as we gear up to sew our first blocks next week!

#1 Gather Fabrics

Gather together the fabrics you plan to use for the general quilt. If you’re putting together fabrics from your stash, edit the pile until it feels just right. See this post about how I selected fabrics for my bright, saturated Economy Star Parade.

Using scraps? Fun! But that doesn’t mean that your quilt can’t have a defined color mood. It could be soft/glowing with lots of white and some pastels. It could be bright/bold with saturated colors and high contrast. It could be rich/moody with gray, brown and jewel tones. Sometimes eliminating one-two colors that you won’t use is enough to give a scrap quilt focus.

Not sure what you have available? Start by cutting 4.5” squares for your economy block centers. After you've made a pile, try to feel out what possibilities your scraps are offering. Supplement with a few fabrics form your stash to cement the mood.

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#2 Choose Stars

Consult your copy of the Economy Star Parade pattern for suggestions about making effective fabric and color choices for your star fabric(s). It’s a big decision and an important factor for success with this secondary pattern.

For my current quilt, I had planned to alternate between black and gray fabrics for my stars. I figured that the neutral shades would contrast well with the other bright, saturated quilt fabrics.

However, when I got started cutting and sewing I saw that the gray fabric was a bit too medium value for my tastes. I wanted the alternating stars to be different in color (so that they separate visually), but similar in value. That’s why I’ve replaced the gray fabric with a midnight blue.

I think it’s working well!

#3 Make a Jump Start

Eager to get started? If you already have any of your fabrics, you can jump ahead with cutting. Over the next four weeks we’ll be sewing, sewing, sewing, so any cutting you do now will totally help.

General Fabrics - Cut 4 1/2” squares in any fabrics that you know you want to fussy cut. Cut 5 1/4” fabric strips from fabrics you’ll use for economy block layers 2 + 3.

Star Fabrics - Follow the pattern directions to cut all of your 5 1/4” squares for star fabrics. Go ahead and divide them in half on diagonal to yield ready-to-sew triangles. Take care with directional fabrics.

I haven’t yet done all the above, but I have sewed a few economy blocks, just as part of my pattern-making process. It’s a great way to test your color scheme and keep up momentum. Jump in, if you’re game, and have fun!

Check back on Monday for the first sewing assignment in our sew-along. If you haven’t already, subscribe to Stitched in Color by email to be notified each time a publish a new blog post. That’s the best way to make sure you don’t miss any of our weekly sew-along content.

Happy prepping!