Scrap Quilt with Star Sashing

This Scrap Quilt with Star Sashing came about for two reasons.  One, a never-ending battle with an overflowing scrap box, and two, disappointment that a clue in a mystery quilt didn’t lead to stars.

As every quilter (or, at least, MOST quilters) knows, keeping the scrap box at a manageable level is a losing prospect.  The last two years, one of my goals has been to deal with the scraps.

I’d like to say I’ve conquered the scrap box, but really, even after making an entirely scrappy quilt I’ve only made a dent in it.

The one thing I did manage to accomplish, partly for this exact Scrap Quilt with Star Sashing, and partly just to get organized, was to sort scraps by color family.

These are the yellow and orange scraps.  I bet some of you are thinking, ‘Wow!  That doesn’t really look like all that much!”

Little House = Little Scrap Box

You’re not wrong.  My house is very small, so an “overflowing” scrap box for me might not look like much to others. But, it’s still more than my little house can handle.  These are the same scraps, but pressed nicely and ready to work with.

This quilt is made up of a variety of scrappy quilt blocks that all finish at 8” and 2” sashing that creates stars at the corner stones.  I’m going to walk you through the directions for a variety of scrappy blocks.  If you already have a plan for how to fill your 8” blocks, you can skip ahead to the star sashing directions.

Scrappy Quilt Blocks

There are a million different combinations of fabric scraps that can be used to create an 8” quilt block.  Remember, that’s 8” finished, it will be 8½” at the raw edges.  I tend to work with pieces that measure 4½”, 2½” and 1½” when cut, because they come together in combinations of 4, 2 and 1, to make an 8” quilt block.

All sewing steps in this tutorial are sewn using a ¼” seam allowance.

I’m going to share the way I made these blocks, based on the scraps that I had.  You may have bigger or smaller scraps, so your quilt may go together in a different way than mine.

That’s the beauty of scrappy quilting!

4-Patch Quilt Block

Of course, I completely forgot to take a picture of the 4-patch quilt block while putting it together!

This block is made from four 4½”, sewn into pairs and then sewing the pairs together makes a 4-patch.

Easy peasy.  Unless you are planning to make your entire quilt from 8½” squares (I wouldn’t blame you if you did!  The stars are definitely the highlight of this scrap quilt with star sashing – see, it’s right there in the title! – and getting to the star sashing as quickly as possible makes lots of sense to me.) this is the fastest of the scrappy quilt blocks I’m going to show you today.

Fast yes.  Practical, not at much.  I don’t typically put fabric into the scrap bin if it’s still at least 4½”, so I only made two blocks like this, one in darker blues and one in lighter blues.

16-Patch Quilt Block

A 16-patch quilt block is made in much the same way as a 4-patch quilt block.  Actually, you can even think of it as four 4-patch blocks sewn together.

To make a 16-patch block and have it still turn out to be an 8” block, start with 2½” squares, you’ll need 16 of them.  Sew the squares into eight pairs, and then sew the eight pairs into four 4-patches.  Here are two of them.

Then, sew the four 4-patches into a 16-patch.  As with all quilting, make sure to use a ¼” seam allowance, and pin every single intersection where two seams will meet.

I intended to share a yellow block made of 16 2½” squares.  But, I only had 8.  The rest of my yellow scraps were too small.

I cut the rest of my scraps down to 1½” by a variety of lengths.  Then, I sewed them into pairs.  These pairs are 2½” wide.

Did you know, for scrappy quilting it doesn’t really matter if the two fabrics in the pair are different lengths?  Sew them together anyway!

To make 4-patch blocks, sub-cut a bunch of the strips into units that are 1½” by 2½”.  Pin them together at the center seam, and sew them into cute itty, bitty 4-patches.

I made 8, to go along with the 8 yellow squares above.

That gives me the 16 squares I need for a 16-patch block, half of the squares are just a single 2½” square and the other half are a 4-patch.

Then, fill in the remaining spots with the 4-patches.

Sew each 4-patch to a square.  Then, sew those units into squares that measure 4½”.  If you are making one block, you’ll have four of these squares.

The next step?  You guessed it!

Sew those four squares into pairs that measure 4½” by 8½” and then sew those pairs into a quilt block.

One of the red blocks came from these same directions. The only difference is that instead of 8 different 2½” squares, I had enough scraps leftover from a red binding that all 8 come from the same fabric.

64-Patch Quilt Block

Now that you know how to make 4-patch and 16-patch blocks, how about a 64-patch block?

It’s just what it sounds like, 64 individual squares all sewn together, but there is no reason to cut 64 individual squares, this is what strip piecing is for!

Remember the 1 ½” strips from the yellow directions?

In addition to the previously given directions, these little guys can also be sewn into strips of four, which measures 4½” wide.

Sub cut 1½” by 4½” units.

You’ll need 16 total of these little units.  Sew the 16 units into eight pairs, and the eight pairs into four little squares that measure 4½” square.

You’re right!  That absolutely is a little teeny tiny 16-patch.  Use four of them and sew into a 64-patch quilt block.

I didn’t take any photos of the blocks in progress, but I did also make two purple and one pink 64-patch blocks.

Square in a Square Quilt Block

I used the 64-patch directions to make one red 16-patch made of the little 1” squares.

My red scraps had some longer pieces, so I made a square in a square quilt block.

From one fabric (red dots on black background) I cut two pieces 1½ by 4½ and two pieces 1½ by 6½.  From the other longer red strip, I cut two pieces 1 ½” by 6½” and two pieces 1½” by 8½”.

Sew the 4½” strips to the left and right of the center square, then sew the 6½” strips of the same fabric to the top and bottom.

Then, sew the 6½” strips of the other red fabric the left and right of the block and finally the 8½” strips to the top and bottom for a square in a square.  Actually, that’s many squares inside of two squares.

Other Scrappy Blocks

This lime green block came about by combining the directions from the 4-patch and 16-patch block directions.

I started with two 4½” squares.

Then, I placed four 2½” squares.

I filled in the remaining open spots with 2½” 4-patches, made in the same way as the directions in the yellow blocks.

The aqua block came about because I ALREADY had 16 2½” half square triangles.  Check this post for a great half square triangle tutorial.

Now you’ve got lots of scrappy quilt blocks. At this point you could sew them together and be done with the quilt.

Or, you can pull together the sashing, corner stone and star pieces for a scrappy quilt with star sashing!

Star Sashing

Now that your blocks are made, it’s time to making star sashing!

What you will need for each piece of sashing is four 2” white squares and a black rectangle that is 2½” by 8½”.

First I am going to walk you through how to make the sashing, and then I’ll tell you how much you are going to need to make a scrap quilt with star sashing like mine.

Start by drawing a line from corner to corner on the back side of all white triangles.

Place a white square, right sides together in one corner of the black rectangle.  It does not matter what corner you start in, because you are going to cover all four corners. 

Sew right on top of the line on the back of the white square.

Trim the scraps from both the white square and the black rectangle, ¼” from the seam and on the side that is closer to the outer corner.

Press towards the white fabric, unless the fabric is much thinner in which case its fine to press towards the darker fabric.

Repeat with all four corners.

Continue to make the necessary number (see below) of sashing units.

My quilt is made of twenty blocks, set 4 by 5.  The number of sashing pieces I needed to complete my quilt was 30 corner stones (white 2½” squares) and 49 star sashing units (49 black rectangles, 2½” by 8½” and 196 2” white squares to make the star points).  If you use more blocks than I did, you will also need more of all of the sashing pieces.

Scrap Quilt with Star Sashing – Putting It All Together

Sew a sashing unit to the right side of all 24 blocks.

Lay out the blocks in the desired placement, I went with a rainbow, more or less.

Place one sashing unit on the left end of all five rows.

Sew a 2½” white square to the right side of the 24 remaining sashing units.  You should have six squares left over.

Make six sashing rows that are a total of four sashing units, separated by white squares and have a square on both of the ends.

Place four of the sashing rows in-between all of the block rows, and then place one sashing strip at the very top and one at the very bottom.  This photo only shows two block rows and three sashing rows, but the lay out should continue for all rows.

I’m not sure if Quilt Inspector Scout is annoyed that I got the rows sewn together while she was asleep and she missed out on a chance to rearrange, or if she is saying of the missing row, “Put it back.  Put it back, right here!”

My favorite thing about this quilt is that even at this point, the stars haven’t come all the way together yet, it’s really not until the sashing rows have been sewn to the block rows that the star design really pops out!

When sewing rows together make sure to pin at every seam, as well as every few inches in-between.

And there it is – a completed Scrap Quilt with Star Sashing!

I made my stars from a variety of low volume fabrics.  All have a white background, but a lot are not only white.

This little star just makes me so very, very happy!

The mystery quilt that I thought might have star sashing was Grassy Creek by Bonnie Hunter, and while I LOVED the quilt pattern, I was very sad that Clue 5 didn’t turn out to be star sashing in the way I had hoped.  This quilt has been in the works ever since then.  I decided that if I wanted star sashing so badly, I better figure out how to make my own.

I think a scrap quilt with star sashing would make an excellent Quilted Waterproof Picnic Blanket, don’t you?