This Balsam Star Quilt is bold and fun and I'm here to tell you about it. The turquoise background fabric is probably my favorite part, mostly because I get scared to use bold  fabrics. But when I do, and they work, I absolutely love the final product. 

Let's talk all things Balsam Star Quilt Pattern, the perfect fat quarter bundle for this project and why you shouldn't be scared of this pattern if you are a beginner quilter. 

You can find the Balsam Star Quilt Pattern here. 

About the Balsam Star Quilt Pattern

The Balsam Star Quilt Pattern is a block based quilt pattern for the advanced beginner quilter. It comes with two variations so you have options!

One variation is fat quarter friendly and that's what I used to make the quilt I am sharing with you today. 

The second variation uses less fabrics. Each star is the same color in each row and the sashing matches the background fabric. This gives the quilt a more modern look and is great to highlight just a few colors or fabrics. You can check out a quilt I made using this version here. 

As I said this pattern is for the advanced beginner quilter. The pattern includes four at a time flying geese which can be tricky if you are a brand new quilter. Even some experienced quilters don't like these blocks. 

Read "Tips to Sew Your Balsam Star Quilt" for information on what ruler I like to trim my flying geese and how to keep directional fabric all going one direction. 

If you are a beginner quilter and want to grow your skills then this is a great pattern. Things you will practice/learn in this pattern:

• Sashing with or without cornerstones (depending on the version you make).
• 4 at a time flying geese.
• The sawtooth star block.

The sawtooth star block is a classic quilting block and commonly used. 

I always think if you are a beginner quilter and can sew a consistent 1/4 inch seam, read  instructions carefully and sew slow (don't forget to have your seam ripper handy) you can to sew just about anything. 

About this Quilt

This quilt came about like most of my quilts. I see a curated fat quarter bundle I can't live without, buy it and stash it away for future use.

The fat quarters are used for accent fabrics in this pattern. I love contrast in my quilts so I really struggled with what background fabric to use. I didn't want to use white because the light/white colored fabrics in the bundle would't stand out against the background fabric. 

I happened to have this turquoise fabric lying around because I intended to use it someday as a backing fabric. 

Don't tell anyone. But my favorite place to get fat quarter bundles is from Sewtopia. Every Friday they put together a bundle which has me trying to resist hitting the buy button because they are so cute. Sewtopia is where I got this bundle. 

This quilt is the large throw size which requires 15 fat quarters. 

The turquoise was a good choice because the colors stood out just like I wanted. And I always love adding extra colors, but not necessarily another pattern. The pattern on this fabric is very subtle so the fabric is more of a blender. 

This quilt went to Kait from Knot and Thread Design to be quilted. She used the panto Arches. I let her choose the color of thread. 

TIP: To get your sashing to match up, make sure to pin. If you don't then the cornerstones won't be exactly in the corners. 



The Balsam Star Quilt Pattern is a great pattern if you have some fat quarter bundles lying around.