Confetti Star Quilt Tutorial

with
Jenny Doan

Confetti Star Quilt Tutorial

Quilt Size: 48" x 64"
Jenny Doan demonstrates how to make the Confetti Star quilt pattern by Material Girlfriends' with 10 inch squares of precut fabric (layer cake). For this quick and easy project, Jenny chose "Bee Basics" 10" Stackers and "Bee Backgrounds 10" Stackers by Lori Holt for Riley Blake. This quilt block is much easier than it appears, and it can be laid out in so many different ways!
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video transcript

Lisa:Hi Jenny.

Lora: Hi Missouri Star family.

Lora: We are identical twin sisters. I am Lora Zmak.

Lisa: And I am Lisa Norton.

Lora: And together we are Material Girlfriends.

Lisa: So in January of 2020 we were at the Road to California and that’s where we met Jenny. I was demonstrating how easy it was to make this block.

Lora: Well when Jenny saw the demonstration she knew we just had to get together. So we are so excited to partner with Missouri Star and with Jenny to bring you our Confetti Star pattern.

Lisa: So we’re going to turn it over to Jenny now.

Lora: Happy sewing.


Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. I’ve got a super fun project for you today. Take a look at this quilt behind me. Isn’t this great? Now this is one of those quilts that looks like you worked really hard but there’s an easy way to do it. So I was at a quilt show one time and I came around the corner and there was a girl demo-ing this quilt. And I was just struck because it registered right away with my brain that this is how I would do it if I thought of it myself. I didn’t, she did. The pattern is called Confetti Star and it’s by the Material Girlfriends. And this is a cool quilt. And I can hardly wait to show you how to do it. So to make this quilt you’re going to need one packet of ten inch squares and we have used Lori Holt’s Bee Basics by Riley Blake. And then you need a, some background squares too. And we have used Lori Holt’s Bee backgrounds. And I love when they come out with, you know, an entire layer cake of lights because it’s fun to match it up. So you’re going to need two of those. You’re going to need some backing, three yards of backing back here and we’ve used part of it. Our quilting pattern on here is called Cotton Candy. And it’s just a really cute puffy little pattern, darling little pattern. You’re going to need about, for your binding out here you’re going to need a half a yard. This makes a quilt that is 48 by 64. Now we’ve only used 24 squares from each pack. So it’s a little bit smaller quilt to show you. If you want to go ahead and use the whole pack you’ll get a much larger quilt because you’re combining two layer cakes. So it will almost be twice the size. So I just want to show you how to do this because this is such a cool way to do it. And again when things make sense to our brain it’s just like that Ah hah moment.


So this is the block we’re looking for and one is a light block and then one is going to be a block with the darker sides like this. So this is the block we’re talking about. And it is so easy to make. So I’m going to grab my rotating mat because it just makes it a little easier. If you don’t have a rotating mat you can always just turn the mat you’re working on. That makes it a rotating mat. And so what I’m going to do is I’m going to take a piece of the colored. So you’re going to stack up two of your ten inch squares. And then we’re going to, I want to walk you through this pattern a little bit because for people who have a hard time reading patterns like I do it’s helpful to understand the pattern a little bit. And their pattern is really good. So they have this cutting diagram page right here and the first cut shows a corner to corner diagonal. Then you’re going to cut 2 ½ inches on either side. So we’re going to go ahead and do that. And I’m just going to turn my mat. And I have this 2 ½ inch by 15 inch ruler here. And it stretches corner to corner. And so I’m just going to make this cut right here. And then I’m going to leave my ruler there and I’m going to turn my mat and I’m going to cut on this side right here. Now I’m going to take my ruler and I’m going to move it to the other side right here and just make sure that I’m lined up right along that edge and cut 2 ½ again. So having a 2 ½ inch ruler to do this is pretty handy. But again that measurement is just 2 ½ . So now we have these pieces right here


So then what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our ruler and I’m going to move these out of the way. Now when you cut your pieces you want to kind of stack them up because as you can see this quilt is very scrappy. So we haven’t kept any of our pieces together. So I have some pieces cut here and I’m just going to go ahead and make piles of these so that I have all the different quadrants and I can just pick and choose as I go along. So the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to take this ruler and I’m going to lay it right along this cut edge right here, just like this. And I’m going to cut this one. And then I’m going to lay it right over here on this edge here and I’m going to cut this one. And I’m going to turn this around so I’m cutting on the right side for my left hand. And then we’re going to do the same thing on the other piece. So lay your ruler right on the edge of your strip, you know, that outside edge. And then we’re just going to make these cuts right here. Just like this.


Alright so now we have pieces that are this shape. So we have diamonds and we’ve got this kind of elongated hexagon shape. And we are just going to put these in piles as well. So once you get all the different piles, and it helps to cut the lights and the darks. And I have some more cut over here and I’m just going to add to my pile so I have more pieces to choose from. We can start putting it together. Now one of the things in the pattern that they suggest that is helpful is Marti Mitchell has a little corner cutting tool. And it’s this right here. It’s just this little 45 inch trimmer tool and they suggest you use it so I thought I would give it a try and see if it works. It is helpful. You don’t have to have it. But it is helpful.


Alright so the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to take our two middle pieces, and if we’re doing a dark block like this, and by dark I mean that the outside edges, the outside corners are going to be your darker block. You’re looking for two dark middle and two light diamonds for either end. So let’s go ahead and pick up a couple of our dark blocks like this. And we’re going to have them out here this way. And then we’re going to have two dark diamonds. And I’ll get one of the red ones I just cut. And then we’ve got these here like this. Oh it goes little edge in like this. And then our diamonds come on the ends. Now our diamonds are going to be the light material for this dark block. And for the other one you’re just going to do it exactly the same as you, for the light one you’re going to do it exactly the same just all opposite. So let me get a couple of these. And I love that we were able to really scrap this one up, a lot of fun. Alright so here and here.


Alright so the first thing we want to do is sew these middle rows together like this. And I’m just going to show you how this corner tool works so that if you, you know, if matching up these edges is hard for you then this will really help you a lot. And so you just put your tool and you lay it, you know, as far as into the corner as you can get it. Then you’re just going to cut and it has two little sides. It’s got a little ck ck like this. And we’re going to do it on the edges of our, of all of our little shapes and it’s going to help those corners really line up. Alright so now I have the little corners trimmed on this one side. And I’m going to lay these together and you can see how well they match up right here. They just line up perfectly. So we’re going to go to the sewing machine and sew a quarter of an inch right down the side and they should line up just perfectly. And we will check that out. And they do. And so then this one again, always lay it on here and then turn it back. This is really easy to get it turned into like an L shape if you’re not careful about how you sew it together it could go in a really weird shape. Alright so then I’m going to press this and it came out just lovely. And matched up perfectly. Now if you don’t have this tool you can just kind of eyeball it and make sure that your quarter of an inch sticks over on both sides. And that will work for you as well. So let’s go ahead and sew this one together.


So now I’ve sewn both of these together and I’m going to press these out. And now what we’re ready to do is we are ready to sew these two together in the middle. And then we’re going to sew the sides together. And so we’re just going to line these up like this. And again you want to make sure that these two edges are lined up and match up as close as possible. So feel for those under your fingers and then sew a quarter of an inch down the side. And we’re just going to, I’m going to make sure these two are lined up down here. And then we’ll press these open. And I’m going to set this seam and then roll it back. Let me move these over here. Oh that looks pretty good. That looks pretty good.


Alright now we’re going to put our corners on. And so that means we’re going to attach this one on here. And I am just going to, what I’m going to do is I’m actually going to fold this in half and find the middle of my block and find the middle on here and make a little finger press on here so that I can make sure that my triangle is lined up in that middle right there. And then I’m going to sew it a quarter of an inch down the side. You can just do it so that you have the same amount of hang off on either end but this will really help them get lined up if you find the middle of your block. Alright and now this one over here. I need to find my middle on my triangle and match if up on my fabric, my little side piece. And I do still look to make sure that I have about the same hang off on either side. Alright then we’re going to press this open. And these squares are going to want to lay back and that’s what I’m just going to let them do, I’m going to press from the top to make sure that they’re nice and flat.


And then you can see we have a little bit of overhang on these sides right here and we need to square it up. So it squares up to 8 ½. And I’m using this omni grid ruler that’s 8 ½. And I’m going to lay the diagonal line right along my diagonal line. It goes right down the middle there. And I’m going to make sure that this block stays in the diagonal and this stays fairly centered. And we’re going to trim all four sides on this. And because it gives you a little bit of extra it just feels like it’s a little forgiving, you know, it just gives you a little more. Alright.


So this is the finished block that we made. Now it takes four of these to make a big block to set them together how we made the quilt. And I’ll show you how that is. Let me move this mat over here. So we’re going to take these and what you’re looking for are these little pieces at the front or at the top corner because they are going to come together and they’re going to form a star. So look how cute this is when it comes together. See that little white star in the middle there, see how that forms a star. And so we’ll sew all four of those together just like a four patch and then it makes this big block right here. So here’s the big block with the white star and then the next one is going to be all your colored ones together and then you have your white and your colors. So on this quilt we have one, two, three and then one, two, three, four so 12 blocks is what you need to make this quilt and you can see it makes a beautiful quilt and it’s a great layout.


But there are so many more layouts and Lora and Lisa sent us several of their quilts to show so we have like a little mini quilt show for you. Natalie, if you’d come up and help me with that. It’s just so fun to see all the different things you can do with these. And they had them, I mean they’re just gorgeous. So take a look at this one. Isn’t that beautiful? Just by changing up, so they’ve gone from dark to light. They’ve graduated the color, so different. And then what do we have next? You guys, thank you so much for sending us these because these are really fun. And then this one is where they’re all just, I mean it speaks for itself, right? It’s just beautiful. The quilting is amazing on this that custom quilting. They look like little flames. This one. Oop here we go. And look how they did this. Just by putting your dark blocks on the outside we’ve got that whole center where it’s light and then the outside is dark. And I mean it’s just gorgeous. But wait there’s more. This is fun. And this is where they’ve done half and half. And so I love that look too. The different colors are pretty amazing. Very amazing. And then this one right here. Oh look how gorgeous this is. Isn’t that beautiful? Just gorgeous. So don’t be afraid to play with this block and see what you can do. There’s all kinds of settings you can do. It’s the Confetti Star by Material Girlfriends. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial from the MSQC.


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