Magical Creatures Star Quilt Tutorial

Hi everybody! Wow, this summer has flown by. Wasn’t it just spring?? I got to do a lot of little short trips this summer, along with a couple longer ones, which were so fun, but also made the time seem to speed by even faster. Now the girl is back in school, the tomato plants are starting to brown, and my thoughts are turning to quilts.

Months ago, I shared an image of a modified star quilt I made using our (then) new Magical Creatures collection of organic cotton poplins. I got so much great feedback, and a number of people asked for the pattern, or at least for quantities, so that they could make one. But of course, when I’m improv quilting to a deadline, I tend not to keep track of pesky things like the amount of each fabric I’m using, so recreating the pattern was a little trickier that it first seemed. Luckily, Mindy came to my rescue and recreated it for me. Here’s her tutorial. Thanks, Mindy!

Magical Creatures Quilt

finished size: 55.5” x 42” (lap/crib size)

Note: We are providing instructions to make the quilt exactly as shown, but feel free to play around with different combinations! You should have enough fabric left over to cut more pieces if needed.

Fabric required:

Magical Creatures fat quarter bundle

1 2/3 yd white background fabric

1 3/4 yd backing fabric

1/2 yd binding fabric

Other supplies:

quilt batting, cotton thread, rotary cutter, ruler, and mat

Cut the following:

Cut from Unicorn Dreams:

4 4 1/2” squares

1 2” square

Cut from Scales:

4 4 1/2” squares

4 2 1/2” squares

3 6” squares

Cut from Forest Flowers:

5 4 1/2” squares

4 2 1/2” squares

1 6” square

Cut from There Be Dragons:

4 4 1/2” squares

Cut from Mermaid Party:

5 4 1/2” squares

1 2” square

Cut from Dots Pink:

3 4 1/2” squares

2 6” squares

1 2” square

Cut from Dots Lavender:

4 4 1/2” squares

4 2 1/2” squares

4 6” squares

1 2” square

Cut from Checkmark:

4 4 1/2” squares

4 2 1/2” squares

4 6” squares

1 2” square

Cut from Shards:

3 4 1/2” squares

8 2 1/2” squares

4 6” squares

1 2” square

Cut from the white background fabric:

5-2” WOF (width of fabric) strips for borders

6-2” WOF (width of fabric) strips for sashing, subcut into 17-2” x 12 1/2” strips

18-6” squares

24-4.5” squares

24-2.5” squares

Sewing instructions:

This quilt has two types of blocks: a nine patch and a star block.

Nine Patch

Each nine patch uses nine 4 1/2” squares – 5 with prints and 4 white.

Lay out the squares in three rows, alternating prints and background, and starting with a print.

Using a 1/4” seam, sew the squares into three rows of three, and press the seams toward the printed fabric. Join the rows, nesting the seams for nicely matched seams. Press the row seams to either side or open.

 

Make six of these blocks.

We used these print combinations:

Dots Lavender, There Be Dragons, Scales, Mermaid Party, Forest Flowers

Unicorn Dreams, Scales, Shards, Dots Pink, Dots Lavender

Checkmark, Forest Flowers, Dots Pink, There Be Dragons, Unicorn Dreams

Dots Lavender, Mermaid Party, Scales, Checkmark, Dots Pink

Scales, Forest Flowers, Checkmark, Mermaid Party, Shards

Forest Flowers, Checkmark, There Be Dragons, Dots Lavender, Shards

 

Star Blocks

First make half square triangles using the 8-at-a-time method. Lay out a printed 6” square, right side up. Place a white 6” square on top and mark the 6” white squares with diagonal lines going from corner to corner, crossing each other in an X.

Stitch 1/4” on each side of the drawn lines.

 

Cut the squares in half lengthwise and crosswise, and cut on the marked diagonal lines. Press the seams open to avoid bulky seam intersections. Trim the half square triangles down to 2 1/2” squares.

 

Now you can start assembling the star blocks. Lay out the blocks as shown:

 

Sew the blocks into pairs, press seams open, sew the pairs together into 2×2 blocks (4-patches), and press seams open. Trim 4 patches to 4 1/2” if needed.

 

 

Lay out the squares into a nine patch as shown. Sew into rows of three, press seams open, sew the rows together, and press the seams open. 

We used the following print combinations (listed as center square, star points, triangles, corner arrows):

Unicorn Dreams, Dots Lavender, Checkmark, Shards (shown in photo)

Mermaid Party, Scales, Dots Lavender, Checkmark

There Be Dragons, Checkmark, Shards, Scales

Mermaid Party, Checkmark, Scales, Shards

Unicorn Dreams, Dots Pink, Dots Lavender, Forest Flowers

Forest Flowers, Dots Pink, Shards, Dots Lavender

Lay out the quilt into rows, starting with a star block, and alternating with nine patches. Lay out the 2”x12 1/2” sashing strips and 2” square cornerstones between the blocks. Sew the blocks and sashing strips into rows, and sew the sashing strips and cornerstones into rows. Press seams. Sew the rows together, and press seams.

Cut 2-2” WOF strips to the width of the quilt for the borders. Sew the borders to the edges of the short ends of the quilt and press the seams. Piece together 2-2” WOF strips to the length of the quilt (with the short borders sewn on). Sew the final two borders to the long edges of the quilt. 

 

The quilt top is now finished! Quilt and bind as desired, and enjoy!!