Star 60 Designing

5/23/2020

Design Your Own Star 60 Block

Star 60 Tool Just Released by Studio 180 Design

Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Design just released a new tool. Star 60 combines her over-sized piecing/trim down techniques with an ability to create hexagon blocks. I still haven't purchased the tool yet -- but it is definitely on my wish list.

There are two basic shapes, that you can work with (1) an equilateral triangle and (2) a diamond. There are a ton of size options, but you essentially can create larger over-sized units by combining the diamond with two equilateral triangles. The pieced units are then trimmed down to the precise size needed.

You can combine these units with larger equilateral triangles and diamonds to create even larger equilateral triangles. Here is one design I came up with.

To play even more I combined six equilateral triangle units to create a hexagon block.

It did take a bit of effort to draft the hexagon block -- which was created as an applique motif block in Electric Quilt 8. I began to wonder about how I could more easily audition my designs to see if I liked them before drafting the actual block.

To do this I decided I needed something like equilateral graph paper -- yes I still have this paper in my bookcase. I have no idea if you can still purchase it. But if so, I am guessing the price point has gone up.

But I will admit that I really didn't like using it. It was hard to erase when working with colored pencils and I kept getting lost at where I was at with my design.

So I came up with a much easier solution using Electric Quilt 8 software. For this solution, I am not worried about "piecing" the block -- only about coloring to see if I could come up with a design that would be Star 60 friendly with fabrics I would like to work with.

In my Electric Quilt tutorial, I will share with you how simple it is to create graph paper with guidelines to create your own equilateral triangle and hexagon block designs. I will also share some fast coloring techniques as well.

Here is the link to the equilateral triangle calculator referenced in the video.

Here is the one patch quilt from the video.

Star 60 Friendly Hexagon block created by Kari Schell using EQ8

My challenge to you. Create your own equilateral triangle unit/hexagon block in a favorite fabric collection. I would love to see what you come up with.

Apply What You Learned Challenge Quilts

Tech Know Quilters is a membership of Electric Quilt 8 owners who are mastering Electric Quilt through online training. At the end of their April class, they were encouraged to apply what they learned during the month of April.

Tech Know Quilters is open to new members only a few times a year. You can sign up for the wait list here and we will notify you of the next open enrollment period..

Marlu Allan

Joy Hegglund -- T Shirt Quilt finished and delivered.

Tina Rohde Optical illusion playing with random color and symmetry.

Maureen Pinwill My squiggly quilt which I have worked on to try and perfect the squiggles. I chose mono prints as this shows the effect more efficiently I feel. I have enjoyed these Modern lessons immensely and have been motivated to stretch my knowledge so much. I particularly loved the Gees Bend challenge too.

Kessel Point Camping Quilt

Kessel Point Dream Big

Kessel Point - Just finished the Design to Production and it has been my favorite! Very organized and methodical approach which speaks to my soul,

I’ve had this Dream Big panel for awhile and decided it will become a anniversary gift for my in-laws in September. Utilizing Kari’s cheat sheets, I was able to dissect block by block and lay out my plan of attack. Even better – I too have a new Cricut Maker and have attempted the EQ8 >Inkscape>Cricut path. Your tutorial to do so enabled me in easily creating the appliques for my Camping quilt

Thanks for your efforts Kari – Your lessons are invaluable!

Nancy Messuri In Advanced Easy Draw we fragmented stars, so I decided to put fragmented squares together. I got the dreaded polydraw error for a moment, and then for some reason it quickly changed its mind and allowed me to use the block. Yay!! I love the blurring effect this created.

Nancy Messuri I was in Masters Advanced PolyDraw where we created a bargello table runner. I had never done a bargello design of my own so decided to try it. It took a few tries to come with a design that worked. I put them together to make this table runner design.

Camille Lechliter I just had to share this one I made with some of Kari's Critters. This was so much fun!

Camille Lechliter From T-shirt Lesson 13. I just ordered the Robert Kaufman panel and have been calculating the yardage needed for the red, black and grey fabrics. (The yardage estimate in EQ seemed like too much so I played with that last night. I never liked math when I was in school but now I have a real need for it and find it exciting - thank heavens for Excel tho!)

Joyce Drenth I took the Master's Advanced Polydraw Class this month and loved exploring the free-form ability of polydraw. I especially loved the reminder for using the brush tool to color swaths of color into multiple blocks at once as in Kari's original Bargello Class. I did not, however, create a bargello quilt. At our recent quilt show, a guild member donated a shoebox full of precut vintage fabric 4" clamshell blocks . I snapped it up and I have begun prepping them for a 74" x 74" beauty. Using Kari's lesson on clamshell borders, I created a layout that i am excited to execute. Random colors are filled now with my actual pieces to be placed later. Oh, and as I count them, it should require 612 clamshells, I believe. Almost done pressing and I will have leftovers! What a steal! Then on the the melon dividers.

Camille Lechliter I've been having a creative surge lately and designed this quilt after watching the first lesson in Reproduction Quilts. I found the quilt photo at The Quilt Index FaceBook page. Couldn't find it at their website but have asked them how to find info. Waiting. I didn't think I'd like this class because I'm not a fan of most antique quilts - the colors are definitely not on my color wheel. But the patterns are a different story. So I'm having fun - again - and still!

Grace Smith

Julie Pedersen Here is my April Applied what you learned challenge. I took the Masters Advanced PolyDraw class. Our last lesson was on a spiral bargello type design. I used techniques from several past classes as well including making an applique from a Hawaiian block.

Kristy Goodin Soard I took the Masters Advanced PolyDraw class this month. I was reminded to use multiple rings and spokes settings in a single block. I found the block in my book by Edyta Sitar, but she created it with templates and I wanted to be able to execute with foundation piecing. I used a layout from the library to create one quilt, and designed the second on my own.

Tina Rohde Experimenting with more modern quilt with circles

Laurinda Warczak was in Working with Fabric Images. Take a look at the fabric in the center of her wedding ring blocks.

Other Projects

Here are some additional projects created by Tech Know Quilter members -- they are a very talented group who are doing amazing things with Electric Quilt 8.

Kessel Point Jacks Chain

Curryanne Hostetler

Marijke Nieuwenjuijsen

Barbara O'Brien

Maureen Pinwill

Maryanne Curwood

Nancy Messuri

Rhonda Goss Gees Bend Challenge

Marlu Allan Gees Bend Challenge

Maureen Pinwill Gees Bend Challenge

Tina Rohde Gees Bend Challenge

Helen Hicks Gees Bend Challenge

Tina Rohde Gees Bend Challenge

Lisa Ward Gees Bend Challenge

Collien Kaseberg Gees Bend Challenge

Cathy Yule Norris Gees Bend Challenge

Charmaine Devaney Gees Bend Challenge

Camille Lechliter

Nancy Messuri

Helen Hicks

Collien Kaseberg

Holly Wilson

Pat Harkins Lone Star

Carol Mallozzi

Lisa Ward

Nancy Dugger Weeks

Karen Eddie Neal

Karen Humphrey

Collien Kaseberg

Barbara O'Brien Fibonacci Spiral

Barbara O'Brien

Helen Hicks

TKQ Masters Projects

Joyce Drenth

Debbi Treusch

Kristy Goodin Soard

Rick Danner

Wanda Hizer

Curryanne Hostetler

Julie Pedersen

Joy Hegglund

Joyce Drenth

Curryanne Hostetler

Happy quilting.

Kari

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9 Comments

Elizabeth Barnett

5/23/2020 11:44:04 am

you could print your own graph paper at
https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/triangle/

Kari Schell

5/23/2020 05:59:11 pm

Thanks for sharing the link. This will be useful those those that don't have EQ.

Carol

5/24/2020 01:51:22 pm

I set my unit width at 1.155, and when I went to the next step, EQ8 changed the value to 1.250. How do I get it to accept my value as entered?

Kari

5/24/2020 02:46:13 pm

Select Worktable settings (the gear on the left toolbar). Under snap settings, change the nudge settings to 1/8 inch.

That will solve the problem.

Elaine

6/3/2020 07:19:07 pm

My nudge setting are already at 1/8 inch and I am still having the problem of the width going back to the 1.125 after I set it to 1.155.

6/4/2020 12:11:08 am

Change the nudge settings to 1/32 of the inch to get greater precision. However -- note that since this is being done for design purposes only, the difference is small enough that it will not be noticable.

6/4/2020 08:25:54 am

I just had to know what I was doing wrong :). I tried changing it to 1/16 and that didn't work. I should have gone on to the 1/32 but I did not. Going to the 1/32 worked great. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Have a great designing day.

Dee Hart

5/28/2020 09:47:55 am

if we loose this email with the video about Deb Tucker's Star 60 tool, is there some where we can find this tutorial again? I thought I saved it on my computer and now I can't find it...I'm only a LITTLE computer savy.

5/28/2020 10:02:19 am

Hi Dee. You can always bookmark the tutorial. Or bookmark my site. If you scroll down on the right there is a search feature for the site. You have not downloaded previous videos, because the videos are protected and cannot be downloaded.