Everyone's a Star Quilt Along: Week 5

It's assembly week for our Everyone's a Star Quilt Along! If you've been following along and have all twelve blocks made, today we'll show you how to put your blocks, sashing and borders together.

I'm Lisa, and I'm back today to talk about assembling your quilt using my Zentastic version. Once your blocks are complete, you'll need to prepare your sashing strips, sashing squares and borders.

Cutting:
From the Rings Gray Sky:
(17) 2-1/2" x 12-1/2" pieces (for inner sashing)

From the Whiskers Gray/White:
(14) 2-1/2" x 12-1/2" pieces (for outer sashing)
**Note--in my quilt this is a directional fabric. I decided that I cared about directionality, so I cut six pieces in one direction, and eight pieces in the opposite direction. If you do this, you'll want to cut the pieces that run parallel to the selvedge first.**

From the Whiskers Hot Pink:
(20) 2-1/2" squares (for sashing squares)

From the Rings Black:
(7) 4-1/2" x 42" strips (for outer border)
**Note--depending on the pattern on your fabric, you may want to fussy cut the rows to be identical, like I did. This allows the ring design to match up from strip to strip.**

We're only showing a finished quilt top today, so we won't address binding, but you'll need (6) 2-1/4" x 42" strips for binding when the time comes. I'm planning to use the Whiskers Hot Pink for binding.

Assembly:
Step 1: Lay out the 12 blocks, 17 inner sashing pieces, 20 sashing squares, and 14 our sashing pieces into rows as shown.

Step 2: The traditional way to assemble a quilt like this is to sew the blocks and vertical sashing pieces into block rows and the horizontal sashing pieces and sashing squares into sashing rows (like Debby does on her blog). You can do that; however, I'm going to show you a different method today. I thought it went more quickly, and I think my seams matched up better. But either way works!

Step 3: Basically what we're going to do is sew the adjacent sashing pieces and squares to each quilt block, and then join these larger framed blocks together. So for the top row, I started with the inner sashing pieces, laying it out like this:

 I joined the right hand sashing to each block, and then sewed a sashing square to each horizontal sashing piece. I then joined this unit to the bottom of the block. Of course, you'll still have an additional outer sashing piece to add.

Step 4: I continued by doing the same for the top sashing row pieces:

Step 5: Sewed those to the block tops:

Step 6: And then joined the three block/sashing units to complete a totally sashed row. 

Step 7: I did the same thing for row 2. And so on...

Step 8: And then I joined all the rows to complete the quilt center.

Step 9: Join the (7) 4-1/2" x 42" Rings Black strips short ends together into a long strip. Cut two 58-1/2" lengths and two 52-1/2" lengths. Sew the longer strips to the sides of the quilt and the shorter strips to the top and bottom. Your quilt top is done! 

Here's Stephanie's quilt top, made from Liberty Garden. 

Head over to her blog to learn more about it.  

Here's Debby's quilt top, made using Moon Flower. 

Head over to her blog to learn more about it.

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There's still time to follow our quilt along and win a prize! 

Which version will you make? Or will you use another Benartex, Kanvas, or Contempo line to create our Everyone's a Star quilt? Share your progress by e-mailing your pictures to us at BenartexQAL2017@gmail.com – we will post them on Facebook and Instagram throughout the Quilt Along. We are looking forward to quilting with you!

Find our earlier posts here:
Week 1 - Fabric requirements and cutting information
Week 2 - Star block #1
Week 3 - Star block #2
Week 4 - Star block #3

**PRIZE ALERT** 

Email us a photo of your finished Everyone's a Star quilt top made with any Benartex/Kanvas/Contempo fabric collection for a chance to win a bundle of fat quarters! (Bonus entry if your quilt is quilted and bound as well!)
Email your photo by Thursday, April 6, 2017 to be entered in the drawing.