NASA star block

Last summer, I came across this call from NASA for star quilt blocks. It turns out that Karen Nyberg, one of the NASA astronauts on the space station, is also a quilter, and she did this whole video about quilting in space. As part of the tie-in, NASA is creating a star quilt that will be shown with the video at a special NASA exhibit at this year's International Quilt Festival in Houston.

All they requested was a 9.5" star block. While any color scheme was allowed, I couldn't resist the opportunity to do something a little patriotic. Red, white, and blue is not a combo I use very often, so I figured this was my chance.

I made the 8.5" version of the Star-and-Pinwheel block used in the Sugar Snow Quilt from Vintage Quilt Revival. (By the way, that book is wonderful. Because I can't afford to buy every new quilt book that looks interesting, I've started checking them out from the library for a test run; then, if I really like it and think it's one I'll use frequently, I'll buy it. This one is definitely going on the buy list.) To bring the small block up to size, I added a border with more of the gray crosshatch fabric. The block actually came together quite easily, though my machine was giving me fits with the 1/4" seam allowance and eating up my fabric. Yeesh.

Anyway, this one's going in the mail ASAP. If you're interested in making a block, you still have a little time. Blocks are due by August 1. You can find more details right here.

Fabrics:
Metro Living Circles in Red
Domino Dot in Navy
Crosshatch in Grey from Architextures
Kona Snow
Mystery light blue dot (maybe an old Michael Miller Ta Dot?)