Stargazey blocks are generally ‘crooked’ or, more correctly, the insides of the blocks are skewed. With their ‘hand drawn’ quality, they have a touch of the primitive about them. The blocks are slightly different every time they are made so everyone is able to put their personal stamp on them.

Stargazey patterns offers patchwork freedom. Freedom to cut and stitch ‘roughly’ concentrating on design and creative fabric usage rather than slavishly following the sample. Also, freedom to break rules and challenge tradition - injecting these quilts with contemporary vibrancy.

Stargazey Quilts patterns are designed to be accessible to all skill levels. Knowledge of rotary cutting and using a sewing machine is essential but other than that all that is needed is an open mind. Sometimes it can be an advantage to be experienced, sometimes it can be an advantage to be a beginner.

The best advice I can give to a Stargazey newcomer is to read through the whole pattern, especially the “working in Stargazey Style page” before beginning cutting and stitching. Follow the pattern - don’t assume that the rules taught in beginners patchwork will be adhered to. For example, we don’t generally worry about the grain of the fabric, the blocks generally grow to be rough edged and are usually trimmed to perfect size - this final squaring up gives a perfect result without the need for straight grain edges. Making up a sample block, (or two or three), until there is an understanding of the design, is essential!

Fabric is cut straight with a rotary cutter and ruler but the size of the piece may vary. The pattern may say “cut a 4” x 5” rectangle” - that rectangle only has to be rectangular ‘ish’ - it may have rough edges, it may be more like a parallelogram, it just has to have the same sort of measurement. This makes for easy quick cutting and economical use of fabric. It also helps to make each block a little different! Of course you may choose to cut perfectly too!

Stargazey patterns have unusual cutting and stitching techniques to enable unique blocks to be made repeatedly and uniquely! Cutting always starts from rectangles, but how these rectangles are further sliced and trimmed not only adds to the quirkiness of the designs but also the ease of construction. These patterns don’t use fancy or difficult techniques, they don’t contain templates, they just differ from the norm.

Generally the patterns have multiple block sizes included. This enables the user to mix sizes to create interesting settings. It also allows use of the block size that fits each quilt or project, eg perhaps for a cot quilt choose the smallest size, for a king size quilt choose the biggest size.

Fabric requirements are very loose - I give minimum yardage. I love scrappy quilts and I don’t expect others to be using the exact same fabric in the exact same spot as I did on my sample. I don’t even expect you to be making your quilt the same size and setting of the sample! I’d advise anyone to build a fabric collection reflecting their taste. I generally buy 1/2 metre, (1/2 yard), cuts of those I love so that when I run out of one another may be substituted. I feel a more liberal fabric requirement list is generally accepted as permission to relax and create.

What then about those bits of fabrics that we trim off and have left over? Isn’t it waste? I don’t think so! On my web site Freebiez page I give you a fun little design called Starz on Stickz, a way I have been using up scrap fabric for years now. There are also plenty of other ways to use these off-cuts - two of my patterns, Quilt As You Go Crazy and Magic Ballz, can both use these scraps. Be creative with these leftovers or give them away to a foundation piecer - they will love you! If you don’t like the trimmings, very simply, you are not suited to my techniques.

Fabric colour next - I use brights, it is my style. Colour inspires me, it makes me invigorated and happy, but others may need to choose differently. Other choices include country, florals, pastel, shabby chic. Lot’s of looks are suitable. Feel free to move beyond my colour choices if they don’t inspire.

I would like you to think of these patterns not as individual purchases but as the start of a library of block patterns that may be used in themed quilts. Think of them as having more life than just one quilt. A repertoire of techniques can be built up at the same time too. I love to combine blocks, and hope to do a lot more, in time, to inspire you. The Samplerz series is a good example of this.

Oh and the Z thing? Just my bit of fun! I look on the Z to denote difference from the norm, my crooked designs, my encouragement of creativity and a gentle rule breaking spirit - I hope you learn to love it too!