Day 103 – Bright Star

Today’s design is a super easy, beginner design, perfect for stitching up some simple, holiday inspired quilts, coasters, or any other last minute gift items you have up your sleeves!

free motion quilting design bright star

Yeah, this may be a bit too simple in comparison to the highly complex designs like Lemonade, but after I stitched it, I liked it so much I had to include it in the project.

Even though it’s very basic and simple, I still uses designs like these in my big show quilts in particular areas that need lots of attention and drama.

The center circle of Release Your Light used a spiral in the center, but I could just as easily have used Bright Star and had the same effect.

Even on a regular quilt, this design will cover a 12″ block quickly and still look better than doing an all-over meandering pattern.

Okay, enough talking! Let’s learn how to stitch it!

Inspiration – I’m in a really big kick on snowflakes and stars this year. While most of the country is blessed with beautiful snow in annoying amounts, the areas of NC where I’ve lived get maybe 2 inches a year AT MOST.

Occasionally we get a really big blizzard (6 inches) which shuts down the whole town for at least a week, and the schools for around a month. Seriously, I’m not exaggerating!

It’s hard to believe if you live somewhere where it snows all the time, but around here, it’s a freak occurrence.

Difficulty LevelBeginner. This design is definitely going to be easy to use over any sized block. If you had a quilt of charm squares or layer cakes, this would be a terrific design to stitch over the blocks for a quick finish. 

Design Family – Edge to Edge. Bright Star can be stitched from edge to center or you can stitch straight through the center if you want to keep your lines very straight and perfect.

Directional Texture – Center Focused. No matter how you stitch it, this design is going to focus your attention on the center. Try to avoid building up too much thread in the center area or it will become stiff and difficult to stitch.

Suggestions for Use – Didn’t I mention Moda charm packs and layer cakes before? Guess who is the newest Moda distributor???

I’m planning to start carrying a limited stock of charm packs, layer cakes, and yardage in the Day Style Designs Quilt Shop soon.

I’d love to know what your favorite fabric lines are. Please comment and let me know if you like the bright, cheerful prints, the more traditional, reproduction designs, or the Moda basic marbles which are perfect for blending colors and styles of fabric together!

let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

3 Responses

  1. Bonnie says:

    I have to say I love all Moda! lol

  2. Ceamz says:

    love, love, love this design! thanks so much for sharing.

  3. Robyn says:

    Another design that could be used on a mixed media card but this time as a centrepiece. I'm noting these designs for my Christmas card making foray this year and think I'll have to tell my scrapping friends as well as my quilting ones about your site because the designs are so flexible :D!!

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