Are the Stars out tonight?

Here are the first five stars for my memory quilt, basted and ready for applique:

I will be hand appliqueing the stars to background squares, and the method I prefer is to hand baste each piece to freeze paper first.  That way, I can work out and secure all the seam allowances with the basting stitches, and then the actual applique is a breeze.

Each point of the star takes a bit of coaxing to make a nice point, so it has taken me a while just to do five stars.  Here's what they look like on the back:

I'm happy with the way the fabrics have behaved so far, even the blue seersucker.  The edges are a  little bumpy, but it passes inspection..

In the photos, the stars are just sitting on a background fabric that I am planning to use, but I'm not quite sure if the narrow stripe in the background will compete with the stripes in the shirts.  I'm just making this up as I go along, letting the fabrics tell me what to do....

While I'm on the subject of stars,  have you heard about the astronaut who has been quilting on the space shuttle?  NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg has spent the last 5 months on the International Space Station, and she has brought her quilting supplies with her.  There's an interesting video showing Karen in space, explaining the difficulties of quilting in zero gravity.    You can watch it  here.

All this talk of stars has reminded me that tonight is Dancing With the Stars on TV.  I'm off to watch and maybe baste some more stars of my own.