Welcome to my pattern spotlight mini-series! Each month I’ll be highlighting one of my patterns, talking more about the inspiration behind it, the techniques involved and sharing some colour inspiration to help you put your own spin on it. First up is first quilt pattern I released, the Ashley’s Star Quilt!

Ashley’s Star is a modern twist on the traditional medallion quilt. Using a variety of simple blocks with a mix of standard machine piecing and foundation paper piecing (FPP), this quilt is perfect for both confident beginners and anyone with FPP experience. The quilt finishes at 50” x 50”, which is perfect as a cosy throw on those cold winter evenings or as a picnic quilt for lazy summer days.

Inspiration

Believe it or not, this quilt actually started life as a cushion cover for my partner! After finding a gorgeous FQ bundle of greens at my LQS I drew the big central star templates and got stitching. After staring at the finished block for a while and feeling it needed something more, I decided to doodled what a scrappy striped border would look like on it (just for fun of course), and just kept going adding border after border! Well at that point it would have been rude not to go for it and make it into a throw sized quilt. After a quick trip back to my LQS to top up my bundle I decided to stick to the green colour scheme of the central star throughout. I did decide to switch up the outer star border colours for yellow inspired by sunflowers (my partner’s favourite flowers) though, and I think they really help the quilt to pop!

Techniques

Given that I designed and made this very early on in my quilting journey, I promise that it really does use beginner friendly techniques! From a super simple FPP star block to the classic square in a squares and hourglass blocks, it all comes together really quickly and simply. The medallion assembly is also super speedy for bringing everything together and it is very satisfying to suddenly see the quilt emerge from all the different parts!

After putting so much love and care into the design (this was a quilt for my partner after all), I expected to be totally stuck when it came to quilting it but thanks to a free motion quilting class I’d just taken, I bit the bullet and went wild with FMQ all over! A green satin binding finished it off nicely and it was ready for curling up with a book and some tea on the sofa.

Your versions

I love seeing all the different ways you make my patterns your own, and the Ashley’s Star Quilt is no exception!

Started in one of my online Intro to FPP classes, Dorothy’s central star is so calming with its coordinated greens and blues. Kathy’s bright and bold quilt uses traditional Ankara fabrics from her native South Africa for a fun quilt top. One of my favourite parts of a class is seeing everyone’s work together at the end, and is one of the things I miss most about in-person teaching - how great do all the different Backstitch student blocks look? I love to see scrappy versions of my patterns, and this print heavy lilac and turquoise version by Karen is great fun.

Colour inspiration

I know how much you all love switching up colours in patterns, so I just had to have a little play and came up with a few different colourways to inspire you!

I love the red version as a Christmas quilt, it would be so cosy to curl up next to a fire with. The blues would be lovely as a summer beach quilt - the perfect picnic base for the whole family! The purples are lovely and soothing and would make a great bed throw for a little one don’t you think?

And there you have it - the Ashley’s Star Quilt! You can buy the pattern by clicking the buttons below - this one has both PDF and paper options.

I love to see your makes, so don’t forget to share your projects with #AshleysStarQuilt and #caitlisledesigns!