Star of Hope
Woo hoo! First week of November is barely over and here’s the DIY Block of the Month! This month’s block is courtesy of Marianne, the newest member of our quilt tea and it’s a wonderful variation on an Ohio Star. (By the way, I’m having a little trouble getting my photos to rotate the correct way, I’ll fix it as soon as I can.)
Cutting is really staightforward – there are only two different sizes 4.5″ squares and 5.25″ squares cut twice on the diagonal.
I used three fabric for my block but you can use two and have the center square match the outer star points (or the inner one for that matter – that could look cool.)
So, from my light (the yellow) I cut four 4.5″ squares and one 5.25″ square. Then I cut the larger square twice on the diagonal to yield four quarter-square triangles.
From the center fabric, I cut one 4.5″ square – remember the fabric I swore I was going to make work in the next block?
From the outer star point (my red), I cut two 5.25″ squares and cut them twice on the diagonal to yield 8 triangles.
From the inner star point fabric (my blueish print), I cut one 5.25″ square and cut it once on the diagonal to yield four quarter-square triangles.
The cut pieces
Now, I always like to lay the block out to see and then make choices of what unit to make first from there. This also helps me be sure I cut everything right!
Laying out the pieces
This block is basically a nine patch with four of the patches made of 1/4-square triangles so the first thing I did was begin sewing the smaller triangles into pairs by sewing them together on their short sides.
Sewing triangle pairs
After pressing the pairs, you should have two larger triangles to sew together that look like this
Triangles ready to sew
After sewing your triangles together and trimming the dog ears, you’ll have a block like this and you’re ready to sew together your nine-patch.
Ready to trim the dog ears and put into place (notice mine is needing to be rotated to have the yellow to the outside)
After this, you’re ready to sew all nine pieces together and, voila! Your Star of Hope is finished!
Finished Star of Hope
So, next month is going to conclude the DIY Block of the Month for 2011 but I’m going to ask the group if they’re interested in continuing. What do you think?
Happy quilting!
Beth
