Falling Star Digital Edge-to-Edge Quilting Pantograph

Falling Star is a clamshell variant featuring a stylized star.

That's it! Thanks for visiting my blog! 👋 *waves goodbye*



This design has been hanging out in my sketchbook longer than its cousin Held Hearts (which was an emergency design made specifically for the quilt in the blog post linked above).



What makes this design distinctive is the split at the crown of the clamshell shape. And that split descends into a simplified star shape. Could we call it a twinkle? Yes, let's! The beautiful thing about the split is that it eliminates the need for any backtracking and is its own design element.

What I like about this little twinkle of a shape is that it echoes the same curves as the joining of the clamshells in the row below, nestling in just so.



It's a dainty little design that's meant to sparkle in the background, which is great for a busy, scrappy quilt like this one.

The Quilt

Quilt Pattern

I believe I stumbled upon this quilt pattern and purchased it through Etsy, but I'm linking to the designer's website here. It's called Festival of Stars by Maple Cottage Designs. 

I wouldn't say that I only make star quilts, but they are very well represented in my history of makes. I'm sure you can understand why my eyeballs were drawn to this pattern (especially in ALL blues, as the designer shows on the cover version). 

The pattern is straightforward and well-written. The only modification I made was to omit the border. I'm very happy with the results! This would also be fun to make in a monochromatic version, as shown in the pattern. Who knows? I might make it again! So many quilts, so little time. As they say. 

Fabrics

This quilt was made 100% from scraps: all of the top fabric, the (pieced) batting, and the binding! I really do love to use what I have—it's so satisfying. Have you heard that design constraints can foster creativity? I believe it's true when it comes to fabric selection, too. I chose three main colors and a light, low-volume background and cut from my scrap bins.

I had a few blocks sewn together before our annual Longarm League retreat last October, but I pieced many of the blocks there and finished the quilt top at home. At one point, as my blocks were up on a design wall, someone commented that the quilt block colors looked like Starburst candy, and I haven't been able to unsee it! It wasn't planned that way, but I sure don't mind the resemblance.

Backing 

Do you have fabrics that you don't even "see" anymore because they've hung around for so long? The fabrics on the left in the photo below fall into that category. I was so glad to put them to good use as the backing of this quilt.

I have a tough time using large-scale prints—AND IT SHOWS—because they end up as quilt backings. :) In fairness, I kind of "inherited" the prints on the left as part of a bulk fabric buy roughly 20 years ago. How satisfying that they now have a purpose!

The Quilting Details

Difficulty Level

This design gets an easy rating. I made it even easier by not setting up my rows to touch. I find that leaving a little space between rows significantly reduces stress! If you look closely at the photos in this post, notice that it doesn't really affect the design if the rows have a little space between them. 

You will need to use a 50% offset between rows. This produces a staggered effect, like that of typical clamshells. 

If you'd like to view the stitch path, a short video is available at the top of the blog post.

Scale

I scaled the pantograph design down from the default size. As stitched, each clamshell is just shy of 2" tall. I almost wished I had scaled the design down even more - only because it stitched out so dang fast! :) I like to set my machine up to stitch as many rows as will fit my throat space (IntelliQuilter makes it really easy to sequence alternating rows for efficiency), and then I work on other things while it stitches. I was not able to get into a groove with my other jobs because I was advancing this quilt so frequently! 

Here are the sizing specifications for how I set up this quilt using my Intelliquilter (48" x 64" quilt size):

Row height: 1.5"
Gap: -0.375" 
Pattern height: 1.875" (measurement from top to bottom of the repeat)
Offset: 50%
Backtracking: none

Here's a look at the included PDF:

Interested in getting new digital pantograph designs like this one on the day they're released (and at a deep discount)? Sign up for our Digital Panto Club and get them delivered directly to your inbox on the first Wednesday of each new month.