Reverse Star in Progress

I have made a lot of progress on my Reverse Star quilt made out of 5 inch blue squares from my stash.  This was my first test block on the design wall.  I tried using my Hera Marker to mark the lines on the back of the white fabric.  It was hard to see, so I decided to draw the lines on. 

When I write on fabric, I use sandpaper glued on an old board.  It holds the fabric in place while I write.  It also helps keep the fabric from stretching. 

After drawing lines on all of the squares, I made the star for each block.  I used white thread so it would not show through the stars. 

While sewing the points onto the blue fabric, I also sewed on the second line.  I ended up with this stack of half square triangles.  I will probably use them for a little doll quilt.  FYI:  These are scraps, not another WIP.  ;)

Then I switched to a grey thread, and sewed strips of three and five squares for each block.  It went a lot faster than I thought it would. 

So after my boys went to bed, I pieced all the blocks.  (You may notice that I have one extra column of squares on the right to make the quilt slightly larger.)  I made two blocks with the star in the center, four blocks with the star in the corner, and six blocks with the star centered on one side. 

This morning I was able to piece the entire top.  It is about 72 x 90 inches. 

While planning this quilt, I figured out that if I alternated dark and medium blues for the background it would work well.  Each block has 24 blue squares: 12 darks and 12 lights.  I pressed towards the dark all the time.  Every other block has dark squares in the corners instead of light squares in the corners.  This made piecing the quilt super easy.  Some of the darks are more medium, and some of the mediums are a little dark.  This made it blend together better, so it is not a complete checkerboard with stars.  ;)  I love the way it has turned out. 

The backing is mostly this fabric with a strip of plain navy with specks at the top.  It is nice to use this fabric up. This fabric is also providing a name for the quilt which Cheetah and I can agree on.  (He still thinks that he needs a say in naming all of my quilts.)  We are going to call the quilt "Solstice."  That way it can be a winter/January and a July quilt. 

Cheetah and Monkey were being so good that I was even able to get the quilt basted today.  All I can say is thank goodness for Legos and Duplos!

I am excited to start quilting this because I have my Janome back.  I will use a white thread on the stars, and a dark navy/black on the blues.  I am thinking about quilting pointy spirals again to give movement in the "sky." 

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.