Russian Star Table Runner/Centerpiece

I call this my Russian Star Table Runner. 
(It is a 24 inch hexagon) If you use a jelly roll to make it, it could also be called a Jelly Roll Star too.  :D

Background:
I love how this turned out and I have had several people on Stashbusters ask me how it is done. If you want to make this, please print it out and have it beside you as you go. Having a photo right there helped me a lot.

No pattern was available of course! I started out kind of backwards with this table runner by looking for a general gift idea in Google Images for the keywords  "Table Runner" which brought me to this lovely and intriguing photo and blog post on a Russian blog here by Marina Sohonchuk in Volgograd. Thank goodness she has a translator button at the upper right of her blog. I did not understand all of her instructions, but I was able to understand from that posting that the star is made with 9 different fabrics. They are cut and assembled from three sets of printed 1.5 strips and an approximately 4 inch white strip. More on your fabrics in a bit. 

I had to search further into Marina's blog and find that she used a 60* degree ruler in the 6 inch size.  I have a 60 degree 8 inch ruler so I just lined up and left off the bottom 2 inches on my ruler when cutting with my 8 inch ruler. 

Here is a tutorial for how I made mine. It went together in a few days. Fairly fast considering I have never used a 60 degree triangle ruler before or made a hexagon table mat. Read thru the whole thing a time or two so you get an idea from the pics of how it assembles together.

You will need nine different fabrics. I had some left over from my previous project. Four of my fabrics are from my old stash. And five out of my  nine fabrics were sold at one time or other on the bolt in the Christmas section even though they are not really Christmas-y prints. Just goes to show you can use stash for this if the colors are festive even if the fabric is not holiday themed!

You will make 1.5 inch strips about 44 inches long from each type of fabric. You can seam scraps together as I did but allow more for this method --unless you don't mind seams in the middle of a triangle. Marina used a Jelly Roll and just tossed out one fabric strip to make hers. If you have that  type of thing on hand go for it. 

MATERIALS:  
You need pins, post it notes, pen, a rotary mat, rotary trimmer, and a 60 degree triangle see through acrylic ruler with the center 30* mark clearly delineated.  I believe mine was an Omnigrid brand.

You need two patterned reds of similar hue.
You need two patterned whites/lights
You need three patterned greens of similar hue
You need two patterned golds of similar hue 

You need three of the  4 inch x 44 strip of plain white or white-on-white completely different from your patterned whites/light strips. This fabric comes in later and provides your "background' for the star.

You also need 1/2 yard of any color you choose for the center of your star. I used a dark green.  You will cut 6 of the 6 inch 60 degree triangles for your center.

You will need a backing piece that measures at least 26 inches square. The finished runner with binding on is approximately 24 inches from point to point.

How To:
Cut your 9 types of fabric into 1.5 inch x 44 inch strips. If you have a little extra it won't hurt just in case you cut a triangle wrong later on.

I laid my strips out in the color order I needed them to stay when sewn. I knew I would need a memory boost as to what went where from Marina's blog photos so I labeled mine with post it notes.

I sewed the fabric strips into their trio strip sets. I also again added those post it note labels back on! I double checked myself a lot because I didn't want to mess it up! You can see the order here.

 You see here my trio strip sets sewn and folded for the photo. They are about 45 inches long or more. I made way more than I needed because I used scraps and had seams in there.

Press everything well. I would advise pressing all your seams OPEN because of the points later on.. Now dig out that triangle ruler. 

Sew on your 4 inch white strip to the red sides of your trios of strips and also to your darker green side of that middle trio set of strips (seen above). In the photo above, the 4 inch x 44 plain "background" white strip piece was sewn to the far left red, the far right red, and the deep green in the right center set.

Line up your trio-plus-white strip sets so the white 4 inch strip is at bottom of your rotary mat and three rows of color strips above.

Use your 60 degree triangle now to cut triangles in one red set and the green set so the longest center line and point of the triangle facing like so  >  . This allows the star stripes to be directed the correct horizontal orientation. If your ruler has a center line like mine, the center line is lined up on the seam between the white 4 inch strip and the red (or dark green) strip in that particular set. Now flip the triangle and cut the last red strip set with the point facing like so  <.

Here is a close up of a dark green trio triangle (after cutting and sewn in place) with it's 4 inch white strip piece below it with the center long point facing right >. Can you see it?

Once you get 6 of each style of triangle cut, lay them out on the table to get an idea of the format. Your trio triangles with the long bold red stripes will back up to each other.  <> and your green ones finish off the point for each of the six points.

At this point you may notice that you really don't have a lot of the tiniest pieces of that last strip color in each triangle set showing.  Oh well! That's just the design of it I guess! Use those scraps left from your cuttings some other day. 

I decided once I had it on the table I didn't want a white center like Marina had. My decorative freehand quilting is not expert enough. So I used the glazed dark green again for the center. Fabrics with that tone-on-tone glazed effect printed on make things look so much more festive than a solid. You need to cut 6 of the 6 inch triangles from your center color.

Here is how the sewing breaks down in rows.  It makes much more sense now and much easier to sew. Be sure and PIN the pieces before you sew them so you don't get one oriented wrong midway through that row!

After sewing the rows, iron each row well after sewing. Starch too if you like since some bias edges are in these stars.

Join the rows together. this is ready to press, sandwich, and free motion machine quilt on my own domestic sewing machine.

 

 I used this red medallion print for my backing. And I used the dark green with glazed pattern from the center again for my binding.