Star Block of the Month: September is the Another Star #starbotm
I’m so thrilled to have Charlotte Newland leading our first-ever Block of the Month adventure! Charlotte will be teaching a class on this month’s block, the Sawtooth Star, on Monday, 7 September, 6:30pm – 9pm. If you’re following along at home, you can find all of the blog posts about the Star Block of the Month here and we sell kits here. Don’t forget to tag any Instagram posts related to the Star Block of the Month with #starbotm. Take it away, Charlotte!
Hello, and welcome back to the Star Block of the Month. This time we are making the Another Star (yes, it really is called that). We will make two 12 inch blocks and sash them to 18.5 inches (unfinished).
This diagram gives you the arrangement of colours in the block. As usual, the blank areas are sewn from background fabric.
Cool palette:
Warm palette:
Cut the following for each block:
First, we are going to make the centre of the block, which is a simple square-in-square, or economy block. First, cut the two 4” x 4” colour 4 squares in half diagonally. Sew the triangles to the 4.75” background square, then trim to 6.5” square, making sure that the points where the seams intersect are at least 1/4” away from the edge, otherwise you will lose them in your seam allowance when you sew the block together.
Now we are going to use the 4.75” squares to make quarter square triangles (QSTs), or hourglass blocks. First, draw a diagonal line across the wrong side of the background and colour 2 squares, and put them in pairs as shown:
Sew a scant 1/4” from each side of the drawn line on each pair of squares, cut along the line to make eight HSTs, and press seams to the side:
Place the HSTs right sides together in pairs as below (this is very important!) and draw a diagonal line (perpendicular to the seam):
Sew a scant 1/4” from each side of the drawn line on each pair of HSTs, and cut along the line to make QSTs. Press the seam open and trim each block to 3.5” x 3.5”, making sure the 45º line on your ruler is in line with one diagonal seam and the 1.75″ mark is in the middle of the block:
Repeat to make eight QSTs:
Lay out your pieces to match the block diagram and sew together to make a 12.5” block.
Add the sashing according to the block layout diagrams. Attach the 12.5” pieces to the top and bottom of the block first, press, then add the 18.5” strips to the sides.
That’s it for this month – see you in October!
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