We’re sewing in Chapter 2 of the Light in the Dark Mini Quilt Class! Now that our fabrics are cut and organized, we’re ready to start piecing this mini quilt and watch that little star come together.

👉 Want to join us? Start the Light in the Dark Mini Quilt Class here.

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What’s Inside Chapter 2?

Chapter 2 takes us through the entire quilt top, one section at a time.

We’ll start in the center with the 9-patch, move into the half rectangle triangles that create the star points, build the rest of the star, and then add the borders to finish the top.

Piecing the 9-Patch Center

We’ll begin with the little 9-patch at the very center of Light in the Dark.

This is a simple bit of piecing, but it gives us a good opportunity to talk about accurate seams and nesting everything together before we move into the star points.

Making the Half Rectangle Triangles

Next come the half rectangle triangles, or HRTs, that create those long, slender star points.

HRTs can feel a little intimidating if you haven’t made many of them, especially when it comes time to trim them accurately. I’ll show you the method I use with washi tape and Sharpie dots on my ruler to make trimming them so much easier.

We’ll also make the reverse HRTs we need so that our star points angle in the correct directions. The finished HRTs are paired together to create the four star point units.

Building the Inner Star

Once our star points are ready, we’ll make the corner units and bring everything together around our 9-patch center.

This is the point where all those individual little units suddenly become the Light in the Dark star.

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Adding the Borders

From there, we’ll work our way outward and add the borders that bring the mini quilt to its finished size.

And this part gave us a little real-life quilting moment!

My star ended up slightly off, which meant everything didn’t line up quite as perfectly as I wanted when I started adding the borders. Rather than pretending that didn’t happen, I left it in the class so we could work through it together.

We’ll talk about finding centers, pinning, easing a very small difference across a seam, and what to check when your piecing ends up just a tiny bit off. It’s exactly the kind of thing that happens when we’re actually making quilts, and knowing how to work through those little discrepancies is a useful skill to have.

By the End of Chapter 2

By the time we finish this chapter, your Light in the Dark quilt top will be complete!

We’ll have gone from that tiny center 9-patch all the way out through those HRT star points and borders, and our little mini will be ready for the next part of the class: free-motion quilting.

In the next chapter, we’ll make a quilting plan and then work through the free-motion quilting one area at a time, including the foreground, background, and border.

👉 Want to join us? Start the Light in the Dark Mini Quilt Class here.

👉 Already enrolled in this class or part of Quilty Club? Your new lessons are waiting in your dashboard.