I'm here today to tell you all about the Northwest Star Quilt Pattern which is a fat quarter friendly pattern featuring the sawtooth star. Although, it isn't the traditional sawtooth star, because sometimes life needs a little spice.

The Northwest Star Quilt Pattern puts a modern spin on the sawtooth star block by adding a stripe into the middle of the block and a square in each corner. When the blocks are connected a four patch forms between the blocks.

I love how all these elements work together to form a fun quilt pattern which works great with solid and print fabrics.

You can buy your copy of the Northwest Star Quilt Pattern here.

This Quilt

I have made this quilt 3 other times and each time I used a plain white back ground fabric. For this quilt I decided to use a black and white background. This was my first time using this color theme in a quilt, which is kind of funny because it's such a classic look. Although this fabric isn't really black and white. It's more of a natural white color.

The background fabric I chose is from a line called Starry. The fabric is by Ruby Star Society and available in many colors. I just love these stars and how they don't overwhelm the fabric. I happen to have most of the colors because I just love this fabric line.

The black and white Starry fabric is such a classic fabric I wish I had a whole bolt of it.



I combined this background fabric with a bundle I bought from Meghan from Then Came June. She has beautiful curated bundles. I like to keep my eyes open for bundles because I really struggle with choosing coordinating fabrics (probably because I am red/green colorblind).

But seriously, fat quarter quilts are excellent quilts for those of us who struggle with colors. It's easy to buy bundles curated by someone else and then if you choose a neutral background color you are golden. That's why I use white so often as a background fabric. I really need to branch out.

I would never have been able to combine all the colors in this bundle. But I love them all together! The solid fabrics also work great with the patterned background fabric. I like a quilt with not too much busyness. The solids stars and four patches balance out the stars in the background.



This quilt is a twin size which means I needed 24 fat quarters. I did add a couple extra just to throw in more colors. My general motto with quilts is the more color the better.

A Bit About the Pattern

The Northwest Star Quilt Pattern has 5 sizes listed! I love this pattern so much and wanted to make sure others could make the sizes they wished to.

Pattern sizes:

• Baby 36 in. x 36 in.

• Small Throw 48 in. x 60 in.

• Large Throw 60 in. x 72 in.

• Twin 72 in. x 96 in.

• Queen 96 in. x 108 in.

This pattern was written for the advanced beginner quilter and beyond. You need to be able to sew a consistent 1/4 inch seam and it's super important you can sew a scant 1/4 inch seam with strips of fabric. I suggest taking a trial run with scraps and measuring to make sure your stripe units come out the correct measurements before starting your quilt.

The first time I made this quilt my stripes came out a bit short, which then impacts the whole block. Here is a good tutorial if you need help.

If you are new to 4 at a time flying geese (the no waste method) then I have a tutorial for you here. Get some practice before sewing your quilt.

 

Because there were so many colors in this quilt I was able to randomly sew the strips together. I love a pattern where you don't have to plan ahead too much.

If your strips are sewn together with a scant 1/4 inch seam and after trimming the flying geese, the points will come right together on this block.

I do like to pin at each point or seam intersection to make sure my fabric doesn't shift.

I make sure that all of the squares in the corners are different colors when piecing the blocks.

When piecing all the blocks together It's important in this quilt to lay them all out and make sure that no two of the same corner fabrics are next to each other. Having each piece in four patch a different color really helps them stand out. It's easy to arrange the blocks since half are rotated 90 degrees.

I also like to spread out the main colors of each sawtooth star throughout the quilt. I lay out the blocks on my floor and then chain piece them all together. This is the easiest and fastest way when you don't have a design wall.

You can see below a close up picture of the blocks chain pieced below.

After chain piecing the blocks together in rows, I go back through and press all the seams and clip the threads. Then, I sew the rows together. When I sew them together I pin each time there is a spot which I want a point to line up... so in this quilt quite often.

I chose another Starry Fabric for the backing. It's an easy fabric to piece together for backing because it isn't directional or a distinct pattern which requires a lot of time to match together when piecing.

I sent this twin size quilt out to be quilted by Kaitlyn from Knot and Thread. Generally I prefer not to quilt twin size at home. Any larger than a throw gets bulky in my machine and takes a lot of time.

Kaitlyn helped me choose a design. We chose perm, which just from the name makes me not want to use it. It gives me throw backs to junior high when my hair was permed. However, I got over the name because the design is perfect.

I took the quilt to my local quilt shop and had my trusty quilt shop employee, Fern, help me choose the binding color. I used to be embarrassed to ask for help, but now Fern is used to it. Plus, getting the correct color is more important than my pride.

This quilt will go on my youngest's bunk bed in the US. She is super excited because of all the bright colors and stars.

If you want to see the Northwest Star Quilt Pattern made up with different fabric read about my version made with Robert Kaufman solids here or my very first baby version here.

Buy your copy of the pattern and get sewing! It's such a fun, easy pattern.