Edna's Stars, Pattern in Development

 Back in December my friend Edna made a quilt that she thought would be a good charity pattern to offer to PC quilters, easy enough for beginners and quick to make. She asked me to write the pattern for it. Here's her original, in her favorite palette of patriotic colors, intentionally very scrappy. 

I drafted the design in EQ and we reviewed it together, recoloring and adding borders until she was happy with it. I made a couple of modifications to it, enlarging the blocks to 12" from 10" and changing the construction from oblongs with flip corner triangles to half square triangles. The size came out to 56 x 68". 

We talked about how this pattern could work in other color combinations and how it didn't necessarily have to be scrappy. I showed her a couple of color options in EQ. 

To verify the pattern I made a test sample. Since I don't have much in the way of patriotic colors in my stash, I used what I had enough of. My version is one of the alternate, non-scrappy colorways I showed her, very girly. 

The placement of pink and turquoise is as she wanted reds and blues placed, with blue for the outer border. 

My test top came out fine. The pattern instructions have been written and are ready for someone else to pattern test. I did have a little trouble with some seams not nesting as I thought they would and further pattern testing could lead to suggestions for improving that. We'll offer it at PCQ's next meeting and ask for a pattern tester. It's intended as a free charity pattern and eventually I'll add it to the free charity quilt patterns tab above. 

Meanwhile, if you would like to make a test version of Edna's Stars and are willing to send me your comments on how to improve the pattern along with a photo of your top, I'll send you a PDF of the pattern. Please leave a comment, and be sure to type your email address in the text of the comment, otherwise I can't send the PDF to you. 

Link ups: Alycia Quilts,  Confessions of a Fabric Addict