Ruby Star Society Starry Expanding Stars Quilt

February 23, 2024

Today I’m sharing my recent Starry Expanding Stars quilt! Lately, I seem to be making two of each quilt pattern…haha. I’m not sure why. The first one seems to prompt a second one because I have a fabric idea that I can’t let go of. That’s what happened in this case. I was also scheming up ways to use some of the leftover Starry fabrics I had on hand and as soon as I mocked up this bold blue version I had to sew it up.

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

Ruby Star Society new Starry Fabrics

I had some leftover Starry cuts after selling this fabric in the shop so I was brainstorming ways to use it up. I remembered the original Expanding Stars quilt made way back when with Print Shop fabrics that debuted these fun stars and decided to mock up some Starry options.

As soon as this combination was made I had to drop everything and sew it up. I really love how Expanding Stars looks in subtle color variations like this one. It becomes really dynamic when you use different shades or tones of the same color family.

Starry fabrics are in shops now. Here are the exact fabrics I used in this quilt.

I’m of course always drawn to the blues so I was excited to have the fabrics on hand to sew this version up.

Expanding Stars quilt pattern

Expanding Stars is a fun and bold star quilt that is fairly simple and fast to make. The size of the star “expands” with each quilt size up. It comes together with squares and half square triangles. I would call it an ambitious beginner quilt pattern.

The challenge for a newer quilter will be having your diagonal lines lining up. But if you cut your squares carefully and trim your half square triangles to size and try to keep that 1/4 inch seam pretty consistent then you will do just fine.

Expanding Stars includes instructions for 5 quilt sizes from baby size to King size. This Starry version is the smaller throw size at approximately 64 inch square.

Straight line quilting

I quilted this Starry Expanding Stars quilt up myself using 3/4 inch straight lines on my Janome MC6700p. It’s been a while since I’ve done regular straight lines! I usually do a wavy stitch when I quilt myself. Straight lines go a lot faster but I do sometimes miss the texture of that wavy stitch when I don’t use it.

But I thought the straight lines were nice and modern for this modern quilt.

Shannon Cuddle Minky Backing

I had this perfect minky match in my stash for this quilt so I decided to use it on this Starry Expanding Stars. I always use Shannon Cuddle wide minky so you don’t have to piece it together.

Pin basting Minky backing

My pin basting is coming along so I decided to try pin basting a minky backing. I quilted up a minky backing a few weeks ago but pulled out the spray baste because I was unsure about pin basting only. Well, I’m happy to say it turned out just fine using pins only!

I was worried it would shift around a little since the minky doesn’t really cling to the batting like a quilting cotton. But I used plenty of pins and my machine handled it just fine without shifting.

I really don’t treat minky any different when quilting it and haven’t had any issues quilting it myself.