My friend Colleen joined the Reach for the Stars club a couple of months ago. It’s not an official club, rather an informal group of quilters around the country working on a queen-size sampler quilt that appeared last fall as a series quilt in the pages of Quilter’s Newsletter magazine. Instructions are coming over the course of seven issues.

You may remember from a previous post that Colleen is using William Morris-inspired fabrics. Take another look at her center medallion:

Colleen recently finished her first block, one of 14 that will surround the center medallion:

Like her medallion, this block will be set on point, so here it is in that position:

Colleen lives out in the country and has a huge garden to tend. I suspect that at this time of year it’s going to be difficult for her to find time to sew. We may have to wait a bit for her next block — but I think it will be worth the wait.

In the meantime, anyone who wants to join the club is most welcome!

Of the 14 blocks in my Reach for the Stars sampler quilt, Block 12 was by far the easiest to make — just five squares and four four-patches — yet I spent an inordinate amount of time fussing over it.

I spun my wheels initially just trying to decide which fabrics to use. I’m using several blacks, greens, and aquas and two different focus fabrics (from the same line), trying to spread them evenly throughout the quilt. Eons later (or so it seemed), I had my motif isolated from the focus fabric of choice and had settled on the white-on-black dot and the pale aqua batik.

Going with the original block layout, my block 12 looked like this:

I knew I was going to change this layout. Because Block 14 is sashed in black, I was pretty sure that black in the corners would prove overpowering. I tried switching the position of the four-patch units:

Better, maybe . . . but still too much black with the sashing to come.

I auditioned a green square in the center in place of the black:

Nope. Too light.

What about a square of black in the center of the green?

Ah, that’s better. I can live with that.

Here is the block all sewn together. . .

. . . and here it is sashed and positioned on point, as it will be in the finished quilt:

Still too much black? Maybe. When I added the block to my design wall, it looked . . . I don’t know . . . heavy compared to the other blocks. What do you think?

I also auditioned it in the center spot:

It actually looks pretty good there. Maybe my Block 12 just became Block 13!

Today I have the pleasure of sharing photos of three blocks made by Sherri Crisp of Knoxville, Tennessee. These blocks are part of Reach for the Stars, a queen-size sampler quilt that is also being made by several others. It’s almost like a Block of the Month (BOM) project, except that those of us making the quilt are getting instructions every other month from Quilter’s Newsletter magazine. We started last fall and, if everyone stays on track, we  should have our quilts pieced by the end of the year.

The April/May issue of Quilter’s Newsletter contained instructions for Blocks 7, 8, and 9. Here is Sherri’s Block 7:

Look how dramatic this block is set on point, as the directions call for:

Block 8:

Notice how the star shape changes when the block is set on point:

Sherri is paper-piecing most of her blocks, and I must say it shows. Look at those perfect star points!

Block 9:

Block 9 on point:

Now just imagine these blocks added to the ones Sherri made earlier:

Keep those blocks coming, Sherri — that is going to be one gorgeous quilt!

Jennifer Varney of Hudson, New Hampshire — one of several quilters I have become friends with over the last few months through our shared desire to make a sampler quilt called Reach for the Stars — revised her center medallion recently.

You may recall from an earlier post that Jennifer plans to arrange her center medallion and blocks in a straight set, rather than on point as called for in the original quilt. Jennifer’s fabric choices include some elegant border prints and metallics in a palette of pewter, soft blue, gold, and black. Before I show you the revision, take a look at her original medallion block  (and take note of the four corner squares):

Nothing wrong with that medallion at all! In fact, it’s beautiful. Now take a look at the revised block:

It’s better, isn’t it? Jennifer used the same fabric in the outer blocks that she used in the first version but fussy-cut the squares to highlight a different motif in the fabric. I agree with her that the change brings more light and balance to her medallion.

Directions for Reach for the Stars are coming in serialized fashion from Quilter’s Newsletter magazine. Thus far the magazine has provided directions for 12 blocks (plus the medallion). Jennifer fell a wee bit behind on the blocks but for a very good reason: she was getting another quilt ready for her local guild’s spring show — and it won a second place ribbon!

Allow me to present Lady Guinevere’s Quilt, designed and made by Jennifer Varney:

Jennifer fussy-cut border prints and pieced them into Night and Day blocks, which she then set on point. The outer edges of the quilt feature a gilded tapestry-look border print.  Lorri Wurtzler of Seventh Heaven Quilting in Nashua, New Hampshire custom quilted Jennifer’s quilt. Here’s a close-up of Lorri’s beautiful quilting:

The finished quilt measures 53″ square.

Congratulations, Jennifer! Now: back to work on Reach for the Stars?

Eleven blocks down, three to go. I’m heading into the home stretch on my Reach for the Stars sampler quilt! Before I reveal my new blocks, let me refresh your memory with a photo of the original Reach for the Stars quilt designed by Terri Krysan of Lakeville, Minnesota:

Copyright Quilter’s Newsletter. Used with permission. Photo by Melissa Karlin Mahoney.

So striking! Quilter’s Newsletter magazine is presenting instructions for this quilt in seven consecutive issues. The current issue is the fifth, with directions for Blocks 10-12.

Here is my Block 10:

My Block 10 bears no resemblance whatsoever to Block 10 in Terri Krysan’s quilt. I departed from her design because I found a block I liked better on — of all places — a coffee cup I’ve had for over 20 years:

See the block just above the capital N of Nebraska? That’s my Block 10!

Here’s that block on point, as it will be in my finished quilt:

It’s neighbor, Block 11, is also a renegade:

I dreamed this one up myself, though it’s probably been done before. The black squares in the corner blocks were an afterthought. I think the block is much more interesting with the addition of those 1″ squares, don’t you?

Here’s the block on point:

Here are the blocks together. Did you notice that they both have fussy-cut centers?

I challenged myself to incorporate a fussy-cut element into each of my blocks without repeating any of the images.  It’s a good thing I have only three blocks left!

Oh, my. What a difference sashing makes on my Reach for the Stars quilt-in-the-making! (Reach for the Stars is a queen-size sampler quilt designed by Terry Krysan of Lakeville, Minnesota, with directions coming via Quilter’s Newsletter magazine over the course of seven issues. The current issue (June/July 2014) contains directions for Blocks 10, 11, and 12.)

I had nine of the 14 blocks  pieced except for the sashing strips. I decided to add the strips before proceeding with the next blocks. Let’s have a look at my center medallion (with one of its two sashing strips) and my nine blocks without the sashing . . .

. . . and now with the sashing:

Quite a difference, eh? It makes me eager to get started on the next blocks, even though I’m not wild about Blocks 10 and 11. I’ve already made changes to four of the blocks so far, and it looks like I will be doing the same with at least a couple more.

I was pondering what I might do about those blocks when my eyes fell on my coffee cup:

You just never know when and where inspiration will strike. I brought this cup home from a trip to Nebraska about 20 years ago. See how the quilt blocks are in the shape of the state of Nebraska? I’ve occasionally thought about making a similar quilt in the shape of my home state of Oregon. It never occurred to me that this cup might solve a design dilemma on a completely different project.

Check out those two blocks on the upper right, just to the right of the big heart block. They just might be making an appearance in my version of Reach for the Stars!

My good friend Colleen Coffman recently finished the center medallion of her Reach for the Stars sampler quilt, and it’s a showstopper! Take a look:

Instructions for this queen-size quilt, designed by Terry Krysan, are being published in a seven-part series by Quilter’s Newsletter magazine.

Colleen’s focus fabrics are from the Morris Apprentice line by Barbara Brackman for Moda fabrics. Her beautiful fussy-cut corners featuring the artichoke motif are even more dramatic when the block is set on point, as it will be in the finished quilt:

Colleen, you are off to a great start!

As Yogi Berra would say, “It’s deja vu all over again.” Block 9 of Reach for the Stars is finished, but not without a last minute change — just like Block 8, which I wrote about in my last post. I’ve been working on this sampler quilt since last fall, when Quilter’s Newsletter began a seven-part series with the Oct./Nov. 2013 issue.

As soon as I saw the original Block 9 (shown below) I knew I would be tweaking it a bit.

I liked the fussy-cut corners and center nine-patch but the asymmetry of the block bothered me. Since the quilt features stars in its center medallion and among its 14 blocks, I decided to include a star in this block.

Here is my revised Block 9 up on the design wall, with the nine units ready to sew together:

I wasn’t quite ready to move the units to my sewing machine, however. There was something about that block I wasn’t loving. On a hunch I cut a little square of black fabric and stuck it the middle of the center nine-patch. I liked the effect so much that I remade the nine-patch. Then I sewed the units together.

Now take a look at my block:

It needed that, yes?

And here it is on point, as it will be in the finished quilt:

An overview of my progress so far:

Next up: sashing strips around each block and a second sashing strip around the center medallion. I should be able to get that done before the next issue of Quilter’s Newsletter arrives with information on Blocks 10, 11, and 12.

I’m making headway (albeit slowly) on my version of Reach for the Stars, the queen-size sampler quilt featured in Quilter’s Newsletter magazine. Directions for the quilt, which contains a center medallion and 14 blocks, are unfolding over the course of seven issues.

If you’ve been following my progress you’ve already seen my center medallion flanked by my first seven blocks:

This morning I was ready to sew the segments of Block 8 together. There they were, up on my design wall:

I had followed designer Terry Krysan’s original block design shown here:

My thought was that the four rectangles on the outside of the block would look good made from one of my two focus fabrics, the one that features a border stripe. But the more I looked at my block components, the more I thought something wasn’t quite right. Hmmm. How would it look if I extended the stripe to the outside edges of the white triangles? I folded a piece of the striped fabric across the top part of the block . . .

. . . and I liked what I saw. I’m so glad I made the decision to make new flying geese units before I sewed the block together.

Now Block 8 is done:

Here it is on point, as it will be in the finished quilt:

I really like the way the striped fabric looks on the diagonal. Sometimes a quilt just tells you what it wants!