Sandy's 14" Star Block Tutorial for use in 15 block quilts.

 Sandy's 14” STAR BLOCK

Hi there,  if you are not familiar with this block I just want to explain that I have called it Sandy's Star after a wonderful volunteer we sadly lost to a brain tumour. In the Aussie Hero Quilts world she was definintely a star. 

This year we are going to use the star block for some very special quilts so I thought it was time to reintroduce the block to you. This is a very fun block to make and an easy one for beginners. 

Huge thanks to Bev F for writing this tutorial for us. Here we go.

in the example we have used blue fabric for the background, yellow for the points and a feature fabric for the centre square.

First cut 1 x 5 ½” square for the centre square. 

Next cut 8 x 5 ½” squares of the background fabric. 

Finally cut 8 x 3” squares of the point fabric.

Take your 8 point squares and using a pencil or chalk, draw a line diagonally from one corner to the other. This is your sewing line.

                                                        

Place one yellow (point) square in the corner of FOUR of the blue (background) squares.  And sew along the line.

Cut away the extra fabric to a ¼” seam.                        

Press the yellow point open so your square looks like a square again.       

NOTE: dont throw the removed triangles as we will show you ways to use them a little later.                 

Next take the four remaining yellow point squares and place them on an adjacent corner and sew along the line.

                                                       

   

Once they are sewn cut away the extra to a ¼” seam and press open the point so you are back to having squares again.

Now take all of your squares and arrange them into the order you are going to sew them so that they create a star pattern. You will be sewing a nine patch. Sew each row of three together.                                                            

*Once each row is sewn together it is important to press them correctly so that the seams will "nest" together when you sew. Press the centre row seams TOWARDS the centre feature square then press the top and bottom row seams AWAY from the points, towards the sides.*                                                        

Now you will need to sew the top row to the middle row making sure you align the seams and pin so they don’t move during sewing. Repeat with the final row. Press the seams towards the centre.   

If you are making this blocks at home for your own use you can now trim the blocks to 14 ½”.  If you are making the block to send in to Headquarters to be combined with other blocks please do not trim your blocks. 

You can create a different look by having the four corner blocks a different colour to the blocks with the points on them.

Now, remember those off-cuts?  As we said, they do not have to be wasted. They can be stitched together to form small half square triangles which you can then combine into all sorts of patterns.      

                                            

Here are two examples of quilts made using star blocks along with other blocks.

You can see that Bev used some of the small half square triangles to make some extra blocks in this one.

In this quilt the extra half square triangles have been used as part of the border. 

Keep an eye on the blog.  From time to time we will be calling for people to create star blocks in certain colours and themes that can then be combined for specific requests. The first one will be out in the next day or so, keep a look out and if you want to take part just send an email to friendsofahq@gmail.com

Till next time... keep spreading the word and happy stitching! 

Jan-Maree xx