Tropical Stars

"Oh my stars!" is a phrase that comes up a lot in the audiobook series I've been listening to lately and it's appropriate for this month's Island Batik Ambassador challenge: stars!  I had to wait to get my July Ambassador's box before deciding what to make.  I had already been mentally saving up star patterns, picking a few finalists but waiting to pick until I knew what fabrics I had received to play with.  I had my eye on a pattern called Star Blossoms from the book Scrap-Basket Beauties by Kim Brackett.  A strip pack of the Islander collection was be perfect for this strip-based pattern, and I could use the Accuquilt to cut almost all the pieces!

The original pattern called for the center blocks to be scrappy but by using traditional Sawtooth Star blocks, I could use the Go! Cube set for the Accuquilt cutter.  First step was to choose fabrics for the stars. I planned to use the half-yard cuts that coordinated with Islander but knew there wasn't enough of any single fabric to use only one. In looking through my Island Batik bin for more options, I found a print that was part of a scrap bundle I won from Laura of Slice of Pie Quilts two years ago!  The prize were scraps from one of her Island Batik projects.  This particular print had yellow, dark orange, and turquoise in it, perfect for coordinating with the colors in Islander.  I added star points in Copper from the basics collection for half the stars and Small Pointed Floral in Turquoise from the blenders collection as the other half. 

The background for the stars is a light yellow print called Mini Bubbles. The nuances of color in this print in person are soooo pretty!

I used another Accuquilt die to cut the strips into 4 1/2" lengths for the frames.  I sewed everything together randomly, trying only not to have the same two prints next to each other.  I quilted diagonal lines that followed the star points with Aurifil thread color 1135, a bright yellow.  The batting is Hobbs bleached 80/20 cotton/poly blend.   The materials used in this quilt were provided to me by Island Batik., Accuquilt, Aurifil, and Hobbs.

I love the tropical colors in this and have decided to call it Tropical Stars.  I've never actually been anywhere tropical, but it looks like a tropical beach should look--sand, sun, and deep blue water.

Tropical Stars was #4 on my list of Q3 goals for the Finish Along and is my Favorite Finish for the month of August in the linky party hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs.  I absolutely loved working on this project and was really pleased at how quickly the top came together, especially for a larger quilt.