Hive 4 Tutorial: January Stars

  

Greetings from Paulette in western Canada.  I live in British Columbia which borders on the Pacific Ocean.  I am about a 4 hour drive from Vancouver.  Stash Bee 2018 is going to be great. I have never been a Hive Mama before but I am all set to get started and one of the perks is you get to post your block first.  Christmas is always a busy time for me. I juggle two jobs and have a big family.  Sewing is my escape. I have been quilting for over 30 years. I enjoy almost all of it from choosing the design to putting on the binding.  My favourite part though is the designing and sewing of the quilt top.  When it is your month to request a block please share what you like most about quilting.  We will probably all have a lot in common.  

I am requesting an updated star block.  I love that it is not a true nine patch as the middle sections with the star points are smaller than the outside corners.  I would like the background to all be predominantly one colour (splashes of others are OK) and the star to be a nice contrasting fabric.  My only request is no Halloween or skull fabric, no solids, and if you use batiks, please make sure they are pre-washed and colourfast.  Otherwise just dig into your stash. 

Cutting:  Background – 4 (5 ½” x 5 ½” squares) all different if possible

                                           8 (5 ½” x 2 ½” rectangles) all different if possible

 Star – 1 (4 ½” x 4 ½” square) centre

                              8 (2 ½” x 2 ½” squares) for the points

1.   Layout the background pieces like this.

2.  Place the large star piece in the centre and place the small star colour squares right sides together on the ends of the strips nearest the centre.  Mark diagonals on the squares as shown.

*Note : not the whole block is shown in this picture.

3.  Sew along the drawn diagonals and press back to make the points. Please trim away the excess fabric.

 It should now look like this.

4.  Join the pairs of strips together.  (To make this easier to get a nice sharp point I pressed the seam allowance of the star point toward the star fabric on one and pressed the other star point seam allowance toward the background. This will help with nesting for sewing.).
Press this seam joining the two strips open please.

5.  You are now ready to sew the nine sections together to make the block.  Sew into rows. Press seams in row 1 and 3 toward the 5 1/2" squares. Press row 2 seams toward the star centre square.  Now join the rows together pressing these two last seams toward the centre of the block.

You’re done.    

Hopefully that was fun.  And don’t worry about the size being exactly 14 ½” x 14 ½”.  I designed this so there are no outside points and I can trim any blocks that may need it without compromising the design.  Please let me do the trimming if I think it needs it.  So just have fun putting the colours together.  I can hardly wait to see what you post.  Thank you for sewing for me.  Remember we are posting on the blog.   Happy New Year Hive 4.            Paulette