25 Free stars
My Starshadow quilt pattern features twenty-five Ohio stars in the throw-size version, and I made them all for free.
Here’s how I did it: I used four cotton, button up men’s shirts in sizes ranging from M to XL that I got for free from a swap shop we frequent. At a thrift store, those shirts might have cost $3 a pop, so we’ll just say $12 for the blue stars. That’s pretty fair, imo. Then I needed less than two yards of background fabric for the accent squares, and there you have it! Pretty economical for a throw-size quilt. I used a gorgeous windowpane linen blend for the accent squares, and I couldn’t resist adding a couple of borders, so this one finished at about 71” square, 8” larger than the throw-size quilt in my pattern.
Tips for cutting up your own shirts:
Use woven fabrics only, i.e. non-stretchy fabrics (I prefer natural fibers like cotton). You can use stretchy fabrics in quilts, but you’ll probably want to stabilize them with very thin interfacing that’s made for this very purpose.
Use the charts in my Starshadow pattern to figure out how many squares you’ll need for this scrappy version and what sizes. I suggest cutting the larger squares before you cut the smaller squares.
If you use four shirts or four different fabrics, like I did, cutting an equal amount of squares from each shirt, you can mix-and-match until you end up with 24 unique stars and only one that repeats.
My only other note, just off the top of my head, is that some of these fabrics were not particularly pleasant to work with — the gingham and stripes, for example. My sewing machine was really hungry for that gingham, and the striped shirt fabric was super densely woven, making it a tough one to pass under the needle. I didn’t have a microtex needle on hand, but that might have helped, and to stop my sewing maching eating the fabrics, I needed to use a leader with this project. (A leader is a small piece of fabric that you put through your machine first, sewing it before you sew your patchwork… YouTube can probably explain this very quickly, if that doesn’t make sense.)
Welp, that’s about it. This top is ready for hand quilting now. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with a quilt top.
