Seeing Stars

I have a friend who is one of those extra special people who remembers every birthday, anniversary, and other holiday with a card or text. I thought it was time I turned the table and let her know how grateful I am for her thoughtfulness. I've also been meaning to try my hand at this starflower block I found over at Ellison Lane Quilts for some time, so it seems the perfect time to make this for my friend! If you haven't yet, go over and check out her blog. She is fabulously talented and has some great tutorials!

This was also the perfect use of my ever-growing scrap heap! I've been inspired by the recent spate of blogs on using scraps and so I've climbed into my scrap baskets and pulled out some some goodies to work with.

I finished the top last night and, amazingly enough, the blocks actually line up! I know this is what is was supposed to do, but that is often so far from what happens with my piecing! Of course, I did originally swap two of the segments when I was sewing it together, so I had to unpick lots of stitches and try again . . . .  Anyway, I think I love this block!

I've been reading on a number of blogs about color value (check out Sew Katie Did or Stitched in Color, for example), and after doing this star block, I get what they're saying. Do you see how the darker blue fabric has a darker value than all the rest of the fabrics. It's not just that it's a darker color, but that it is denser and isn't in balance with the other ones. If I were to do this again, I'd either find a blue with a value more consistent with the other ones, or I'd pull on some darker values in some of the other colors (like the red, orange, and green) as well to balance it across the star.

Now I'm just trying to decide how to quilt this. Should I hand quilt an outline of the star? Or, should I machine quilt parallel lines outlining the start? Or, other suggestions?