will butt together nicely. You may wish to use a few pins at the seam intersections to start with, but we found after a while that it was unnecessary to pin. Press seams in one direction, as shown.
8 Repeat the process to make three more blocks like this.
9 Rotate the four blocks so they make the pattern shown in the diagram. Sew the blocks together, ensuring the seams match. You may have to re-press and pin a number of seams so they butt together nicely. When all seams are sewn, press well.
QUILTING AND FINISHING
10 Your quilt top is now complete. Make a quilt sandwich of the quilt top, the wadding (batting) and the backing. Quilt as desired and then bind to finish.
11 To make a scrappy binding, cut each of the seven jelly roll strips allocated for the binding into four pieces. Mix them up and sew them together into a continuous length, making sure you do not sew rectangles of the same fabric next to each other. This is now ready to make your double-fold binding.
EXPLODING
Stars
Our Starlight Express quilt, from our first book Jelly Roll Quilts, has been a firm favourite with everyone. We love playing around with the Lone Star design, and using some stunning fabrics from Alison Glass we have created this Exploding Stars quilt. Only one jelly roll creates this large quilt. However, you do need lots of background fabric so make sure you choose one you love.
Vital Statistics
Quilt size: 89in x 89in (226cm x 226cm)
Quarter-block size: 143⁄4in square (finished)
Number of blocks: 9
Setting: One centre star and eight three-quarter stars
Requirements
One jelly roll OR forty 21⁄2in strips cut across the width of the fabric
6yds (5.5m) of background fabric
3⁄4yd (65cm) of binding fabric
CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS
Background fabric
Cut eighteen strips 21⁄2in x width of fabric, for use as colour 3 in the diamonds.
Cut seven strips 95⁄8in x width of fabric. Subcut each strip into four 95⁄8in squares to make twenty-eight squares in total. Cut each square in half diagonally to form fifty-six large triangle A.
Cut five strips 7in x width of fabric. Subcut each strip into six 7in squares to make twenty-eight squares in total (two are spare). Cut each square in half diagonally to form fifty-six small triangle B.
Cut four strips 151⁄4in x width of fabric. These need to be cut into four 151⁄4in x 30in rectangles for the outer border but we would strongly suggest cutting these rectangles when ready to use them, in case your seam allowance is slightly different from ours and you need to cut them slightly larger or smaller.
Binding fabric
Cut nine 21⁄2in wide strips across the width of the fabric.
SORTING THE FABRICS
You need to divide your jelly roll into four colourways (artistic licence can be used here). Our Alison Glass jelly roll had two of each strip, which worked well. Note that colour 3 uses background fabric.
Colour 1 (black) – six strips.
Colour 2 (reds) – twelve strips.
Colour 3 (background fabric) – eighteen strips (see cutting instructions).
Colour 4 (blues/greens) – twelve strips.
Colour 5 (yellow) – six strips.
MAKING THE QUILT
Sewing the strip units
There are three different rows in each diamond and you therefore need to make three different strip units as follows.
1 Strip unit A: Sew a colour 1, colour 2 and colour 3 background strip together in the order shown in the diagram, offsetting each strip by 2in. It is important to offset the strips to avoid wasting fabric. Press seams in the direction shown. Make six of strip unit A.
2 Strip unit B: Sew a colour 2, a colour 3 background strip and a colour 4 strip together in the order shown, offsetting the strips by 2in. Press seams in the direction shown. Make six of strip unit B.
3 Strip unit C: Sew a colour 3 background strip, a colour 4 and colour 5 strip together in the order shown, offsetting by 2in. Press seams as shown. Make six of strip unit C.
Cutting the strip units
4 Take one strip unit A and turn it around 180°. Position your quilting ruler over the uneven right-hand edge, aligning the 45° line on the ruler along the bottom edge of your strip unit, and then trim the unit.
5 Rotate the strip unit 180° to start cutting your strips. Move your ruler so the 21⁄2in strip line on the ruler aligns with the 45° cut edge of the strip unit. Cut the first 21⁄2in wide segment. Continue like this to cut ten segments from the strip unit. Check every few strips to ensure you are always cutting at a 45°
