Hand quilted Fableism Expanding Stars Quilt

February 15, 2024

Today I’m sharing my hand quilted Fableism Sprout Wovens Expanding Stars quilt! This was such an enjoyable quilt to work on. It’s made from Fableism Sprout Wovens specifically so I could hand quilt it. I’ve been wanting to hand quilt a quilt like this that has a bold pattern. So I used the star pattern as my guide for the hand quilting.

The Expanding Stars quilt pattern is in the Quilty Love shop.

Expanding Stars Quilt pattern

The Expanding Stars Quilt pattern is an older Quilty Love pattern. It’s a big bold star that “expands” up with each size. So the design is the same but it scales up with each size.

This Fableism Sprout Wovens Expanding Stars is the large throw size.

The Expanding Stars quilt pattern is a fairly simple pattern that can probably be tackled by the ambitious beginner. It’s mostly patchwork using squares and half square triangles.

This bold star pattern includes instructions for 5 sizes Baby – King.

Fableism Sprout Wovens

This Expanding Stars quilt was made specifically to be my next hand quilting project so I of course went with Fableism Sprout Wovens for it. I’m finding that I enjoy quilting these wovens the most so all of my hand quilting projects are wovens quilts. Wovens are a looser weave thinner fabric so it’s easier to glide a needle through them.

Wovens are more prone to shrinking and fraying so I have been pre-washing them before using them. I also always use a really small stitch length like 1.8 when piecing with them.

Fableism fabrics left to right: Sprout Wovens in midnight, Sprout Wovens in Oat, Sprout Wovens in Cenote, Fableism Trellis Wovens, Sprout Wovens in Storm, Sprout Wovens in Arctic.

I wanted to use fabrics I had on hand so I put this combination together. In the end I wish I had used Sugar instead of Oat but it was all enjoyable to work on just the same.

Here’s a l ink to my current favorite hand quilting supplies.

Big Stitch Hand Quilting

I recently took up hand quilting, or more specifically big stitch hand quilting. I’m obsessed! I’m finding that I really enjoy having a quilt to work on at all times. So you will see a lot more hand quilted quilts come through now.

I made this quilt specifically to hand quilt it. I thought it would be fun to follow the shape of the stars with the quilting. And I love how it turned out but I will say I do much prefer simple straight lines because it’s easier to handle the quilt that way.

There’s lots of turning and shifting the quilt when you do a design like this one.

I had to snap some progress photos because I kind of love the texture the hand quilting gives the quilt. And I love how the fabric looks all loose (bottom left) and you think it’s going to end up like that but the hand quilting really shrinks up the fabric and all of that loose fabric disappears.

I started this quilt on November 28th, 2023 and finished it on January 14th, 2024. So it took about 7 weeks.

Hand quilting tutorial

I’ve found a way to hand quilt that is comfortable for me. I don’t use a hoop or a frame and instead quilt at the dining room table. I found this tutorial by Suzy Quilts helpful and I’m probably doing a very similar method.

This Fableism Sprout Wovens Expanding Stars quilt did get a little warped during the hand quilting process. I could kind of tell it was doing that as I was quilting it. So I immediately washed it when it was done to see if it would work itself out. It did help but the edges are not super flat. I think it will relax out over time.

So these bottom photos are after washing it. Keep in mind that I did pre-wash the fabric so it only crinkled up a little. It wasn’t super drastic. I believe this batting is Quilters Dream 80/20 cotton/poly. I recently switched back to 100 cotton but I don’t think I used it on this quilt.

The large throw size quilt is pretty generous at approximately 80″ x 80″ so it almost fits on a full size bed. If you want to make an Expanding Stars for a full size bed then I would make this large throw size and maybe add 3- 5 inch borders.