Reimagined Quitl Block – January Ninja Star

My January Ninja Star pattern is now available! It has instructions for a yardage version as well as piece breakdowns, cutting diagrams, and guidance for a scrappy version. You can get the pattern HERE. Back in 2024, I hosted my first block of the month, my Ninja Star Sampler. Each block had the ninja star in the middle with the corners making secondary ninja stars where the blocks come together, but the part in the middle was different each month. You can see my finished Ninja Star Sampler quilt in the picture below.

I’ve decided to release six of the blocks as full quilt patterns. January is up first!

I recently did a project for Missouri Star Quilt Company (affiliate link). For this project, I needed to take a block that I use a lot and reimagine it. I’ve been using ninja stars a lot since I first got the idea for my Ninja Star Sampler. So, I decided to use one of those blocks for this project. I made one block in the way I would normally make it and one reimagined block.

For the reimagined part, I ended up using a scrappy foreground, scrappy background AND inverting the color scheme. I used layer cakes from MSQC (there’s that affiliate link again) for the scrappy, high volume foreground in my reimagined block. I’m amazed by how different the same block can look with the flipped color scheme. I also think the scrappiness of that flipped color scheme give the blocks a completely different feel. You can see my block in the original style on the left and the reimagine block on the right in the picture below.

So how did the top made with reimagined blocks turnout?

I had so much fun making the reimagined block that I decided to make a whole quilt top instead of just one. Going into this project, I had an idea of what I thought the reimagined blocks and quilt top would end up looking like. I pictured lots of colors, a lovely scrappy mess with a lot going on and the low volume foreground popping out from all of that. This one did not go the way I saw it in my head, but I still love it!

I feel like the part of the low volume foreground that pops the most is the secondary stars form where the blocks come together. The ninja stars in the center are not as obvious until you start looking at them, and the small white squares around it aren’t really obvious even though I know they are there. The background looks less like a background and more like it’s part of the design. So, I definitely saw this going differently in my head, but I think I actually like how it turned out even more than what I pictured. What do you think? Do yo like this scrappy inverted color scheme more or the yardage version I have pictured in the cover shot below?