Center Stage! My February Schnibble...

I haven't participated in the last few Another Year of Schnibbles. I have had so many things I needed to finish, I couldn't justify taking the time to start a new project.

 But, when it was announced that for this month we could choose any Schnibbles pattern we liked, I was ecstatic!

 I have been wanting to make Center Stage for ages!

Schnibbles Center Stage
I've never made a Lone Star,
so I thought this would be a good start before tackling something bigger.  

My first challenge: no multiple charm packs on hand.
 Then I noticed this Dessert Roll sitting on my cutting table looking so pretty!
Dessert Rolls are 5" wide, so I could cut my own charms and have several of the same color and print. 

Why is it so hard to untie those bows and start using the fabric??

There are only 20 fabrics from a line in a dessert roll.
 Since they're 5" wide and the width of the fabric, you can do a lot of things with them.
I think they are my new best friends!

After reading the pattern carefully, I realized I didn't have to cut charms, just the rectangles needed for the Lone Star. There was a lot less wasted fabric since I didn't have a left over piece from a 5" square. 

The rectangles get sewn together in pairs and then trimmed into the angled pieces.
The pattern was so well written I didn't feel nervous about making my first ever Lone Star.
It was pretty fun seeing it come together. 

I tested a couple of different backgrounds.
 I had a lot of this fabric, but was afraid it was a little too light. 

Both of these backgrounds are from the French General line Maison de Garance.
I had these in my stash, and really wanted to use the print on the right, but was an eighth of a yard short to be able to cut the squares needed to make the setting triangles. It finally dawned on me that I could cut the triangles separately from a strip instead of a square. Yay! No fabric shopping necessary! 

Her she is all quilted and bound.
 I was a little nervous about the set in seams and even considered splitting the corner squares to avoid them, but I took a deep breath and went for it. Thankfully it all went together beautifully. 

Difficult to see the feather quilting that winds around the star.
The star is just continuous curves.

The back is pretty too--an old Blackbird Designs fabric from Anna's Starry Night line. 

 Thanks to Sinta at the Pink Pincushion and Sherri at A Quilting Life for hosting Another Year of Schnibbles! Be sure to check out their blogs at the beginning of next month for the Parade of Schnibbles. It will be fun to see what everyone comes up with!