'Christmas Spice' quilt tutorial part two ~ Create the star

In the second part of the tutorial, we are going to create the 3D effect. This brings the blocks to life with a star in each square.


You can feel the center of the block through the patchwork. You will be able to feel where the four folds have come together.


Knot a piece of quilt thread and feed this into the back of the quilt so that the thread tail disappears in the backing.


This drawing can be referred to for the placement of the thread to create dimension.


Bring the needle and thread up through the center of the quilt block.


Go from the center to the middle of the left side of the diagonal square. Pass the needle through from top to bottom of the fabric square only (not through the entire quilt).


Continue this step three times as shown. See drawing.



This creates a stitch on each of the four sides of the fabric square which can now be gathered by pulling the quilt thread.


Pull tightly and place a stitch in each of the four points of the star to hold the form together.


Continue back to the first form taking on extra stitch and create a loop to tie off the thread but do not cut. The knot is to secure the star form before adding the bead.


Add a large bead with the same thread. I fed the thread through the bead three times to secure it before tieing off and working the thread tail once again into the quilt.


The Christmas Spice quilt measures 14 3/4 inch square. It makes a sweet tabletopper for the upcoming holidays.


Quilting is optional. Here is the back of my quilt which I have kept simple and used large quilt stitches to be sure the gold metallic quilt thread shows.

If you have any questions about this project, please contact me as I will try to help in any way I can. I hope you will enjoy making this very simple quilt. Even if you have never tried quilting, this might be a fun project to try out. Remember ~ measure twice, cut once!

Merry Christmas in July!