Color Collective 6 Pointed Stars

This post could also be titled "Five Star Review" for Sewtopia and their 6 month Color Collective. For six months you will receive a bundle of solids along with a pattern by Tara Faughnan.  The one I'm sharing today is from the first season.  It was the last pattern and I wanted to hand piece these stars.

I made about 65 stars and I pulled fabric from previous months to give me a larger variety.  Here I am contemplating putting a large hexagon between the stars, but the quilt seems to be so large.

I went with using a diamond between each star.  The next part was choosing a color for the setting diamond.

Taking a quick look using the black and white setting on your phone/camera  will help determine dark sections in your layout.

Once I started joining the stars with the black diamonds I realized that piecing the whole row together might be a bit awkward when joining all the rows together.  I decided to work in chunks.  

Here I have the top section pieced into  quadrants.   Putting 4 quadrants together was much easier that working with full rows.  Once this was together, I worked on finishing the edges.

Two hours of pressing resulted in every seam spinning and laying nice and FLAT.  That's the beauty of hand piecing.  You can manipulate your seams. For this reason,  I never press hand pieced units until they are all together.

Oh, the sweet satisfaction of my star centers!

So what's so great about the Color Collective?  Let me show you.  Here is my own selection of solids that I've accumulated over the years.  Notice how many greens, creams, and cheddars to browns I have?

Here are the untouched bundles of the selections that Tara curated for Season 1 and 2.  Notice all the berries, limes, aquas and purples?  Yup, she pushed me over the edge of my color box.  I have worked with combinations I would never have chosen, and making decisions based on a selection of colors chosen by someone else is quite freeing.  The patterns are definitely aligned with working with solids and you have to up your game as every seam shows. 

I have done hand pieced 6 pointed stars before, so this technique was not new to me.  Making all the centers as good as I could mattered when working with solids.  This series was about was trying new color combos, learning new techniques (as I have with many of the other monthly patterns), and stretching my boundaries.   I've done 2 series, they have a private FB page, video demos, FB chats, IG chats and the pricing is excellent.  Plus members get a discount for the 6 months on any other purchases from Sewtopia.  If you are not familiar with Tara's work, check out her patterns.  They are clearly written, great line drawings and her social media is a wealth of inspiration.

This piece finished at 62 x 64.  When oriented this way, it can look more like Tumbling Blocks.  Any way you look at it, I think it's fantastic.  Once it's quilted, I will trim back the top and bottom edges, I used pre made stars along the border, ones that were extras that didn't make the cut for the center.  Black batting will be used and I am going to hand quilt it.  (who know when!)

Keep stitching,
Sharon