9 out of 9 finished!

I am just floored by what can be accomplished when I stick to one project at a time! This week I managed to crank out the last five of my Dotty Stars, and here they all are together on the design wall...

I'm not sure if this will be the final layout; the borders need to be cut and placed around the perimeter before I decide for sure. I've got a close-up shot of each of the five new blocks for you next, but be sure to scroll all the way to the end of this post for some helpful tips should you decide to make your own Dotty Stars quilt!

Tips and Tricks for making your own Dotty Stars Quilt

Nine stars provides quite a bit of practice, so I made a few notes to help you with yours :)

1. I am a big believer in Mary Ellen's Best Press spray. There are tons of bias edges in these quilt blocks, so do yourself a favor and stabilize all that fabric with Best Press or another starch-like product before cutting anything.

2. Make it easy on yourself and just cut a mess of your scraps into 3" squares. You'll need a ridiculous amount of HSTs cut from 3" squares to make this quilt.

3. For each star you'll need 28 dark HSTs and 20 light HSTs cut from your 3" squares, and 9 total 2.5" squares - 5 dark and 4 light. Cut these center squares from your pile of 3" squares after you've made the triangle sections.

4. Add some yellow to each block to pull everything together in the end. I wish I had added some black and white to each one as well - I think it would have given more contrast within each star.

5. When sewing your small triangle units (the point sections of each star) use the full 1/4" seam allowance, but when sewing the center four patches use a scant 1/4" seam. The first couple of blocks my pieced triangle sections were always bigger than the 4 squares at the corners and the center 9 nine patch; the only way I could fix this (since all my corner squares were already cut) was to vary the seam allowance slightly between the triangle and square sections.

6. When sewing the main nine sections of each star block together, press those seams open. For all other seams within the block sections, press according to the pattern instructions.

I used all scrap fabrics for the colored portions of each star, but I did purchase 12 different 1/4 yard cuts of dots on white to use for the backgrounds. It doesn't seem like I used up that many of my scraps. My friend Lorrie thinks that scraps multiply once you start cutting them, and it sure seems that way here. I feel like I've still got enough HSTs cut to make another quilt. What should I do with them? It's so hard to throw away perfectly good fabrics! Maybe I'll make something like this or this with the leftovers?

But there I go again getting ahead of myself. Borders on this one first, Shelley, borders on this one first!