Meandering Stars

I finished up quilting my mother-in-law's quilt this weekend.  For the most part, I really like it.  But I'm going to start with the things that I would have done differently if I had to do it again.

1) I would not have used a variegated thread.  (Or I would have used a variegated thread that didn't blend in at all.)  I felt like some of the lines of the stars blended in too well with the blue fabric, so some of the star points disappeared.  To me it looked like I just goofed in the meander and added some straight lines.

2) I would not have put large stars in the outer border without using a ruler.  I have to remind myself that straight lines are hard to get straight.  Now, all the stars have a few waves in them so they're at least uniform, but I don't love them.  I think that small stars in the red border and something else in the blue border would have been better.

But, as far as the main quilt design went, I think it turned out really well.  The stars were nice because if I found myself making a line too straight I could just put a star in.  It also matches the theme of the fabric well.

So that I remember some of the tricks I've learned (or if you wanted to try), here are the things to keep in mind.

When making a star, the second straight line (after the first point) should go away from the direction that you want to go in the end.  (For the pictures below, you want to go in the direction of the arrow.)

Then you add the other legs and voila!  A star.

One common problem I had was forgetting to go the opposite direction for the second leg.  It isn't a big deal, you just need to be a little careful at the end.  Try to touch the line on the first leg without going over it too much.

The other common problem I had was ending up with a four pointed star.  You need to aim for the green circle, not the red circle.  The red circle seems like it should be correct because it is where two legs intersect, but it doesn't really work out.