Happy New Year!  I’m excited to start the new year with a fun project with many of you!Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.comThe above picture is the pattern cover that you can download here.  I included fabric requirements and cutting instructions along with the pattern.  In the next week I plan to have a video tutorial to help with piecing the blocks for anyone that is new to paper piecing, for today I have my fabric selection process!

If you haven’t yet, join the quilt-along group on flickr, there will be lots of helpful discussion, and new friends to be made!

Also in the next week, I have sponsor and kit options that will become available, if you need to shop for a few pieces or the whole quilt, wait to check out the options soon!

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To select fabrics for a scrappy quilt like this, I tend to rummage through all my scraps and fabric stash.  I pulled this huge pile of fabrics as options to include in my quilt, then let them set for a few hours so I could look at them together.

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.comWhile I love all the fabrics, I did feel a little overwhelmed by the number of prints and the variety.  To better look at the fabrics, I sorted them by color.

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.comAs I sorted, I pulled out a few fabrics.  Looking at scale, smaller prints will work best, and color, I decided that these prints didn’t work within my plans.

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.comNext, I needed to narrow my field of vision.  Looking at the whole group it’s harder to make decisions, so I pulled back to look at a few colors at a time.

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.comThe small pile to the right are the few fabrics that I pulled out, they were to dark, gray, light, dark or large in scale from the rest. I realized that I wanted pure color, as I worked through the fabrics.  I still love them, but not planning to use them in this quilt!

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.comI did the same with orange and yellow fabrics.

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.comAnd the red, pink, purple pile.  I decided that I didn’t want too much pink, and wanted the bits that I did include to sparkle.  After all that sorting and stacking, this is the final selection :

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.comThe fabrics are all of similar depth, and I’m excited to see how they sparkle with a gray background.

If you wanted to do a more specific color palette, you might consider adding a more colorful background.

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.com

Blue and green stars with a fuchsia background or…

Dancing Stars Quilt Along : AmysCreativeSide.com

orange and yellow stars with a aqua background.

Be sure to consider all the options, and see what will work best for you!

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**For the next two weeks, let’s pull fabrics, and shop for the basics that are needed.  Be sure to download your pattern for the size options, and fabric requirements, and add the flickr group to your daily stop, for encouragement and inspiration!

I’m looking forward to quilting with all of you –

Amy