Metropolitan Home Star Updated

Metropolitan Home Star? Is that related to the Metropolitan Home magazine? BINGO!

Hey, I had a hard enough time naming my three children, so naming my quilts was even harder. I found this picture of a vintage, one of a kind quilt, in a 1982 Metropolitan Home magazine (is this magazine still in print?). Here is the pic I ripped out and saved and carried with me through many household moves:

C. 1920. That's all that's known about this awesome design

I drafted it about 20 years ago and my daughter (15 at the time) saved it on my computer and called it "Spikey Thing" (she needed to get into my Adobe Illustrator program and wanted to close all the windows I had open at the time). That's what this is called in my 2nd book, Supersize 'Em Quilts:

Supersize 'Em Quilts book (2009)

And the full quilt:

Metropolitan Home Star quilt: 72" x 72"

These are not my favorite colors. But I was teaching a Kaffe Fassett Club at Intown Quilters in Atlanta at the time, and we chose some of those large scale prints. Here are a few other colorful versions of this quilt:

Batik Home Star with staggered stars

And a set of quilts from a cruise (that I cancelled due to sponsor "misbehavior", but she had already advertised this project and they had to get another teacher to step in . . .)

Metropolitan Home Star twin quilts

I wanted to update the block with some lush florals. Let's see a few of those "spikey" points in process (we are talking PAPER PIECING here).

Pre-cut fabrics for each patch and a printed foundation for those spikey points.

Print 4 foundations for each block. I like thin newsprint

 Step One: Trim light gray and then add purple strips for patches 2 and 3:

Patch #1 trimmed and then Patches 2 and 3 added

 Trim and get ready for Patches #4 and 5:

Trim Patches 2 and 3, leaving 1/4" seam for next patches

 Patches #4 and added:

Patches #4 and; 5 (light gray) added

 Trimming Patches #4 and 5:

Patches #4 and 5 added and then trimmed

 Last two patches added:

Last two patches added

 Pattern trimmed:

Pattern trimmed. Make 4 of these!

And combine these four points with five squares of a lush, large scale print. I also added 3" border strips for a 26" block. Love these blues!

Updated Metropolitan Star, single block

And using clothes pins to get a flat shot:

27" Metropolitan Star quilt (21" block)

I offer this four block quilt pattern on my Etsy pattern page for $8.00. You can print as many star point pages for any size quilt, actually. You can also see all the quilts from what I show here. It's a great way to showcase some very large scale prints: Metropolitan Star Quilt on Etsy.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the steps!