Ultimately I did choose to go with the design that would let me play with color gradation for my June challenge quilt. And since I had several green Cherrywood fabrics already in my stash, I decided green would be my color this month.I also decided my color run would go from the yellow to the blue of our ROYGBIV challenge fabric. And I was hoping the final result would have a sort of 3D effect, as if the star were sitting on top of a pyramid and you were viewing it from above.
So then I had to figure out how to bring my drawing to life. The more traditional way would have been to make a bunch of half square triangles and lay them out in a grid to create the diagonal bands of color. But I wanted a cleaner look, less seam lines, so I decided to go with long strips sewn together and then cut on the bias into large blocks/panels.
To help me get the staggered placement right for the strip sets, I went back to my trusty freezer paper pattern method. 
From here I was able to measure how long each strip would need to be and then how to stagger it so that I'd be able to cut the strip set down to a rectangle when it was finished and not have to waste too much fabric in the process.
In the meantime I continued on with my construction. Because the outside edges would all be bias, I wanted to wait as long as possible to trim those in order to minimize the chance of stretch and distortion. I only cut two sides of each strip set to be able to sew them all together but still leave the outside edges intact. And since I was still waiting for my new blue/green fabric to arrive, I was missing two strips from one of the panels. 
Now all I had to do was wait for my fabric to arrive and hope the color would be what I was looking for.
Happily it was exactly what I needed and it was a simple thing to add those last two strips and then trim down the quilt top to prepare for quilting.
Now on to the quilting...which of course is where I almost always get bogged down. I enjoy the process of quilting whether by walking foot or free motion. In fact it may be my favorite part. But I always have such a hard time deciding WHAT to quilt. Simple clean lines or something more detailed and intricate? An all over design or break it up into sections? And even once those decisions are made, there are still more choices. Does simple clean lines mean straight lines? Wavy lines? Close together? Far apart? What kind of thread to use? Blending? Contrasting?
So the completed quilt top sat on my table for well over a week while I agonized about what to do next. With the challenge deadline looming, I had to do something and the quilting idea that was foremost in my head at that point was a spiral. Finally, decision made. Time to quilt.
Only one last element needed to be decided. Binding or facing. That choice was a little easier to make. After auditioning several fabrics and fabric combinations for possible binding and not liking any of them, I went with facing.
But still this project needed a name. I asked for help and suggestions from fellow challenge participants on the group's Facebook page. Trisha F. suggested Radiant Viridescence which sounds quite grand and elegant and for awhile I considered using it. But then GranRox P. commented on how it looked to her like the star was rising up from the green background and that led me to...
Rising Star
