Folded Star Quilt Block Tutorial

How To Make a Folded Star. It’s a slightly more complicated block, but to compensate there is only one of them.

We will be sewing one 12” block (12.5” unfinished) and making it up to 18.5” (unfinished) with sashing.
This diagram gives you the arrangement of colours in the block. As usual, the blank areas are sewn from background fabric.

The cool palette uses Bluebell (colour 1) and Regatta (colour 2):

The warm palette uses Meringue (colour 1) and Papaya (colour 2):

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 3” x 3” colour 2 squares in half diagonally. I like to starch them before cutting to minimise the wibbly bias edge effect.

Sew the triangles to the 3 3/8” colour 1 square as shown below, then trim to 4.5” 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.

Next we need to make half-square triangles. Draw a diagonal line across the wrong side of the six 3.5” x 3.5” background squares, and put them in pairs with the 3.5” x 3.5” coloured squares:

Sew a scant 1/4” from each side of the drawn line on each pair of squares, then cut along the line to make two HSTs. Press with the seam towards the darker fabric, and trim to 2.5” x 2.5”, making sure the 45º line on your ruler is in line with the seam. You will have a total of twelve HSTs, eight in colour 1 and four in colour 2:

Assemble the four corner patches of the block using one 2.5” background square, two colour 1 HSTs and one colour 2 HST:

Now we are going to use the 5.75” squares to make quarter square triangles (QSTs), or hourglass blocks. Draw a diagonal line across the wrong side of the two 5.75” background squares, and put them in pairs with the 5.75” colour 2 squares. Sew a scant 1/4” from each side of the drawn line on each pair of squares, cut along the line to make HSTs and press towards the coloured fabric:

Place the HSTs right sides together in pairs so that the coloured fabric is against the background fabric 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 4.5” x 4.5”, making sure the 45º line on your ruler is in line with one diagonal seam:

Repeat to make four 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.