Stars by Magic

I have always wanted to make a Lakota Star style quilt, but all those diamonds!

Stars by Magic a book by Nancy Johnson-Srebro published in 2004 promised to teach me how to do it, without diamonds, and without Y seams, not that I find Y seams are scary but evidently some do and Nancy avoids them..

To be honest I was sceptical, but I love books so I ordered it.

This is a magic book.

There is a lot of waste in the technique but it turns out that Nancy is as anti-waste as you can get and she has all sorts of neat ideas to turn waste into useful things, like wall hangings and quilt backs. Whoda thought of that?

The first seventeen pages are devoted to tips, explanations of the method and how to read the block charts. Block charts? Nancy uses a highly individual cutting chart for each block and what she calls a Quilt Map, a synopsis of all information needed to make the quilt from block size to yardage, all color keyed to the demo quilt. Each block is broken down into step by step colored diagrams.

The first block taught in the book is a Lemoyne Star. I will post a picture of mine when I find where I put my camera. :~( The Block Chart enables you to choose from 15 different sizes, from 4" to 18". There are a total of 30 star variations from strange cactus-y looking ones to lilies and palm trees, and of course the Lakota Star.

This book was a good buy, I recommend it highly; 30 blocks, 10 quilt patterns, a bunch of cool border ideas, what is not to like. If you can make bias binding you can make complex stars using this method.

Y'all come back!