A Lone Star Shortcut

What if you only had to do half of the piecing for a Lone Star quilt? Hmmm…half the work with all of the results; sounds like a good great deal!

Betsy Smith used Ro Gregg's Marblehead stripe (consisting of 2-1/2'' wide printed strips of different colors) to construct the Harvest Lone Star quilt, featured in the October-November issue of The Quilter magazine.

Designed by: Betsy Smith

Featured in: The Quilter October-November 2012

Fabric: Marblehead by Ro Gregg

Q. What made you decide to sew a Lone Star design?

Betsy: Star quilts are among my all-time favorite designs, with a Lone Star being right at the top of the list. I almost always visualize a star design first when I start working on something new.

Q. What did you like best about making this quilt?

Betsy: I really liked working with the Marblehead stripe for the body of the star. The even width of the stripes made the process very straightforward.

Marblehead pre-printed stripe fabric

Q. What was most challenging about making this quilt?

Betsy: Making sure that the seams matched. Accuracy in the piecing really fools the eye into thinking that those star points are made up of lots of individual diamond patches when, in reality, they are made with just three strips of the striped fabric per star point!

Q. Can you talk briefly about what technique you used?

Betsy: The technique was based on the idea of working with a strip set made with 2-1/2'' strips of fabric. Using the stripe fabric was just like working with a ready-made strip set. I cut the stripe on a 45-degree bias, which gave me the diamonds for the star points.

Q. What do you like best about how this quilt turned out?

Betsy: I really like the graphic quality of this quilt. It makes a statement.

Q. How does your machine quilting enhance the design?

Betsy: The Marblehead fabrics in this quilt contribute to a somewhat elegant feel. I wanted to enhance that quality with an elegant quilting design so I machine quilted traditional feathered wreaths in the open spaces.

Also, if you're interested in making a holiday-colored Lone Star quilt, the Marblehead stripe also comes in a metallic gold, red and green colorway. 

To see all of the Marblehead prints, click here.

To learn more about Betsy Smith, click here.

To find the October-November 2012 issue of The Quilter, click here.