How to Hand Sew – Double Sided Stars

When I finished my Lunar Phases Quilt top I had to decide how to quilt it. I decided I wanted hand quilted stars in a mustard yellow color. I wanted to do stars, but I wanted the back to show the same stars.

I was like hmmm how would I do that? I looked all over the internet and didn’t find a thing. You know what that means? Time to figure it out yourself. It took a little while, but I did figure out.

I used DMC thread in color 783. I used all the strands when sewing for a really thick and prominent star. I hand quilt with out a hoop, so no hoop will be pictured.

Things to watch when sewing these stars:

I strongly suggest you sew a test star on a sticky note, or some paper, before you do this on a quilt.
If you only have a little thread left, tie it off, you don’t want to run out of thread mid-star
It is really easy to get your thread pulled too tight and get bunching, so make sure you aren’t bunching and you are keeping things flat. This is probably only an issue for those who are doing this without a hoop.
You can make smaller stars, larger stars, etc. Just adjust the size of your star sides.
Frequently lay out your quilt and get a look at the big picture and make sure you like where your distribution of stars are going

Below is a picture tutorial of how to do this yourself.

Your star is done! Now there are two options:

If you are done, or almost out of thread, you can tie it off and hide your knot. When sewing these stars you do not want to run out of thread in the middle of the star, so if you are running low, tie it off.
If you need more stars, keep sewing stars. You take your thread and go back into the fabric and then pop up where you want your next star (pictured below).

You can do a few stars this way or a while quilt. I am going for a starry sky look with areas of a lot of stars and areas with fewer stars. I am not finished yet, but a photo of the top and the back are shown below. I love that the stars are double sided.