Mosaic Star Quilt Pattern - all the details!

Written by Brittany Lloyd

The Mosaic Star quilt pattern is now available!

If you are looking for a really great advanced beginner skill-builder quilt pattern, then look no further than Mosaic Star. This pattern was actually created specifically to be modern patchwork "sampler" style quilt for Triangle School, my advanced beginner online course, which opens again Spring 2023. I wanted to include techniques such as half square triangles, half rectangle triangles, flying geese and whatever else I could cram in there! :) After playing around with the shapes and symmetry of the blocks and how they all interact with each other, Mosaic Star was born!

I love that these blocks looks like old-world tile. I especially love that there is negative space, around each piece of the quilt, which makes this pattern perfect for solids and prints alike. Your eye has a place to rest on the Background fabric, but there is still so much interest with the shapes and colors to add movement and symmetry.

My first mock-up of this design was actually a two-color quilt that I ABSOLUTELY love. I shared on Instagram that it might be my favorite quilt that I've made this year. I'll share about this quilt in a few days, but since it was a little more dark and moody, I knew that I wanted the cover to be the complete opposite of that.

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The fabrics are Kona Doeskin, Suede, Gumdrop, Blush Pink, Foxglove, Petunia, Primrose, Bellini, Lt. Parfait, Ice Peach, Peach, Creamsicle, Cantaloupe, Salmon, Amber, Pickle. The Background is Kona White, but I also think Kona Snow would look really well with this quilt! I've found that Kona White can almost be blinding, but extremely crisp. If you're wanting something more off-white, then Snow is a good option.

We have quilt kits for this exact quilt in our shop!

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Similar to my Nightingale quilt pattern, this is a "mix and match" style pattern. Meaning you need one fabric per block, then you'll mix and match certain elements from block to block so that there are multiple fabrics in each one. There are also 5 different sizes to choose from! So you can create either the Modern (multi-color) quilt or the Traditional (two-color) quilt in 5 different sizes... that's a lot of options!

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The pattern is also scrap friendly and the pieces are a little on the smaller side, so this is a great pattern for using up those tiny bits for either the Foreground OR Background fabrics.

Here are a look at the fabric requirements:

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Since there are SO many techniques in this quilt, it's such a good "advanced beginner" skill builder! If you have at least 2 or 3 quilts under your belt and you're feeling pretty adventurous, this quilt is for you. You'll tackle skills like the half square triangle, flying geese and half rectangle triangle. And if you're already someone who feels confident with these blocks, this pattern has enough going on that I think you'll find it a fun challenge!

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OPITIONAL SPECIALTY RULERS

If you've never tackled these skills before, rest assured that the pattern walks you through each step. You'll need to trim most of these units and I have trimming tutorials on the blog that are linked within the pattern. You can also use specialty rulers if you wish. Know that they are NOT required. I trim all of these units with just a standard square ruler that has a 45 degree line. But if you want your trimming to be a little more straight-forward and mindless, Bloc-Loc rulers are the way to go.

There are Bloc Loc rulers for the half square triangle, half rectangle triangle and flying geese units. The flying geese Bloc Loc ONLY trims to the exact size. So while it's helpful, it's also a little limiting for future use. The half rectangle triangle (HRT) Bloc Loc rulers will only work on HRTs that have a 2:1 ratio. So you can either use the Mini 2:1 HRT Bloc Loc ruler or the Large 2:1 HRT Bloc Loc ruler. The Large ruler allows you to trim more size HRTs than the Mini ruler does.

If you want specialty rulers, here's what you would need:

Flying Geese - Bloc Loc or WingClipper I (The Flying Geese Block Loc can also work for the Diamond in a Square units).
Half Square Triangle - Bloc Loc 4.5" or 6.5" (the larger the ruler, the more versatile for future projects)
Half Rectangle Triangle - Large 2:1 or Mini 2:1

Note that you will likely want to press your seams to one side for the Bloc Loc rulers. I press all seams in this pattern open, with the exception of a few seams in the block construction that are pressed to one side for nesting seams. If you are someone who exclusively wants to press the HST, HRT, etc seams open, then you might not find Bloc Loc rulers beneficial. The WingClipper I for the flying geese works great for open seams and it'll trim multiple size units!

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I did something different for this cover quilt and quilted it myself! I actually really love doing my own quilting, but I often don't because of time constraints. I'm making it a 2023 New Years resolution to do more quilting! Really the worst part for me is the basting; but since I discovered table basting, it's not bad at all!

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A post shared by Lo & Behold Stitchery (@loandbeholdstitchery)

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For these quilting lines, I did groups of 3 and 5 lines. Those two groups are 2" apart and the lines within the groups are ~1/2" apart. I saved Story Highlights of this process to Instagram if you're curious. Doing this "crosshatch" design is an easy but impactful design...I highly recommend!

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FUN FACT. The pattern includes a special BONUS section of 3 different quilting ideas! This one is included plus a diagonal cross hatch and a chevron design! I've never included these in patterns before, but I think it's a really fun addition. Let me know what you think and if you want to keep seeing these in future patterns! And if you're new to straight-line quilting, you can find my Machine Quilting blog post for machine quilting basics here.

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If you use FQs or 1/4 yards for this quilt, you can use your leftovers for a scrappy binding! That's what I did for this quilt and I love how it turned out. :)

For the backing fabric, I used Meadow One by Art Gallery Fabrics. I randomly came across it on our shelf one day and noticed that it pretty much had ALL of the same colors. It's always fun to put a print on the back of an all- solids quilt. :) We have these backings available for purchase as well!