Favorites Among the Stars

Scott Flanagan’s Prismatic Stars pattern creates a repeating constellation of angular star forms, but the alternating light and dark backgrounds keep the composition from ever feeling repetitive. Against the lighter blocks, vivid fragments of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple seem to float across the surface. Within the darker blocks, those same colors appear almost illuminated, creating an entirely different visual energy from one star to the next.

Pieced by Diane Quirk and quilted by Laura Phillips of The Wandering Thread, the quilt features fabrics from Scott Flanagan’s 4th & Main Favorites collection for Northcott Fabrics alongside assorted complementary batiks. The restrained monochromatic field allows every interruption of color to command attention while still maintaining a remarkably cohesive overall composition.

The quilting introduces another layer of movement through sweeping curves and circular forms that travel freely across the piecing. Rather than competing with the geometry of the stars, the softer quilting lines provide a counterpoint to their sharp angles and help unify the many individual blocks into a single textile work.

Even the reverse offers one final visual surprise. A richly saturated blue batik backing continues the quilt’s relationship with color, revealing that the boldness seen on the front was never merely an accent—it was part of the work’s character all along.

There is something particularly fitting about the exhibit title Favorites Among the Stars. The stars may provide the structure, but it is those unexpected fragments of color—appearing, disappearing, and reappearing across the quilt—that continually give the eye something new to discover.