Easy Piecing, Amazing Design

Class Preview

Easily create classic quilts beaming with eye-pleasing intricacy. Use straight-line stitching to create professional-looking diamond patchwork with no Y-seams or bias edges!

Starting the Carpenter’s Star

Meet your instructor, quilting designer Debbie Maddy, before embarking on your first in-class project: the dazzling Carpenter’s Star quilt. You’ll learn to choose effective fabrics for the quilt blocks and background before using Debbie’s time-saving techniques for auditioning fabric placement and making the all-important sample page.

Perfect Half-Square Triangles

Discover the best ways to cut, sew and press the half-square triangles that make up your Carpenter’s Star blocks. Debbie demonstrates her favorite techniques for cutting symmetrical pieces and chain-sewing your triangles precisely and efficiently. Finish by pressing your blocks while preventing bulk or accidental stretching.

Assembling the Carpenter’s Star

Learn how to lay out the Carpenter’s Star blocks and train your eye to detect layout mistakes. Next, follow along with Debbie’s professional pinning techniques to keep your blocks perfectly aligned and prevent mishaps at the sewing machine. Finish by sewing all of the blocks for your center star into rows with perfect star points and matched seam lines.

Finishing the Carpenter’s Star

Continue making perfect star points as you sew the rows you’ve made together easily and precisely, using Debbie’s troubleshooting techniques along the way. Next, you’ll measure, cut and add borders, including a beautiful floating border that matches the center of your quilt and highlights your perfectly aligned blocks.

Spinning Stars Quilt

Transition from half-square triangles to quarter-square triangles as you start Debbie’s beautiful Spinning Stars quilt. You’ll learn how to start with a half-square triangle center before creating blocks that consist of rectangles and squares, or half- and quarter-square triangles. Debbie shows you how to easily adapt her prior methods to these blocks as you measure, cut, pin, sew and press.

Provence Star Quilt

Dive into the easy and amazing Provence Star quilt, which pairs bold lines with vibrant colors. Learn to work with directional fabrics with consideration to symmetry, aesthetic appeal and the overall flow of your design for professional, eye-pleasing results. Next, follow along with Debbie as you mark, cut and construct your blocks and assemble the quilt.

Quilting Designs

Wrap up the class with an exploration of quilting design options, ranging from decorative embellishments to stitches that downplay noticeable seams and intersections. Debbie shows you the best ways to mark your stitch paths using improvisational and stencil methods, and shares a variety of examples to ignite your imagination.