I’m not surprised that there appears to be a baby boom going on right now since we have all been staying at home more. I have several pregnant people in my circle, so I thought I better get busy making a few baby quilts.
I do not like to gift a quilt at a shower, though. The recipients have to wait until the baby is born and named because I always make a special label with the full name, date, weight and length of the new arrival. It makes the quilt a little more special. And gives me a record of the birthday!
Anyway. . . I wanted to make some bright baby girl quilts so I picked some fun Kaffe fabrics and since I am enamoured with the Ohio Star block right now, they had to be Ohio Stars. I’m not going to be super specific with instructions here because there are LOTS of tutorials on making an Ohio Star block and that is all this quilt is.
Take a look at the photos of me with the quilts. I did not put a white border on the pink/orange quilts but I did on the red/aqua quilts. I lost a few tips on the first ones and I really like the “floating” look that you get by adding a thin border of background fabric around the big block. And let me tell you. . . adding the binding becomes much more forgiving.
Here’s what you need:
1 yard of the center fabric (large floral)- Cut two 15″ squares and five 2.5″ strips.
1 yard of the square fabric (orange)- Cut two 16″ squares and five 2.5″ strips
1 yard of the star fabric (pink with polka dots)- Cut four 16″ squares
3 1/4 yards background fabric (white) two 16″ squares and eight 15″ squares. You also need (10) 2.5″ strips for the “floating border”.
Putting it Together
Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the two white 16″ squares and the two orange 16″ squares. Put these marked squares right sides together with the four pink polka dot squares and sew on both sides of the drawn lines. Cut on the lines, press to the dark side.
Place the orange and pink half-square triangles against the pink and white HSTs with the dark sides going in opposite directions. This means that the seams should nest nicely. Once again draw a diagonal line across the squares, sew on each side of the line, cut apart and press to the dark side. Trim to 15″. Now you have the eight star points.
Assemble the blocks according to the diagram. Measure the sides and add a 2.5″ border to opposite sides and then the other opposite ends. Poof. Two Quilt tops done.
I did custom quilting on the pink/orange quilts and just used a smallish stipple on the red/aqua quilts. The stipple took about half the time and really smoothed out the seams, so I was pretty happy with it.
