Sixteen big blocks, each one a star that opens out like a flower, set five rows of four with four calm plain squares dropped in among them and sashing running between everything. It finishes at a generous 92" x 114", which is a proper king sized quilt with a real drop on both sides, and it is the kind of top that reads clearly from the doorway and then rewards you for walking closer.
The making is far steadier than the finished top suggests, because the whole quilt is one unit repeated. Every piece of it is a square set on point inside a square: a 5-1/4" centre square with four triangles added around it, and those triangles come from 4-1/8" squares cut once on the diagonal, so a single cut gives you two. Sew a triangle to opposite sides of the square first, then the remaining two, press away from the centre, and trim the unit to 7-1/4", leaving a quarter inch beyond the points of the middle square so nothing gets clipped off when the units are joined. Nine units make one block in three rows of three, sixteen blocks at 20-3/4" square, and 2-1/2" sashing carries them all together. That is one hundred and forty four units in total, all the same shape, all from the same two cut sizes.
Here is why this one is worth making:
- The star comes from placement, not from difficult piecing. Three background triangles sit around each outer unit, two of a second fabric sit at the outer edges of the inner units, and the remaining triangle picks up the fabric of the unit beside it. That arrangement is what makes the star appear across all nine units. Every seam is straight, with no curves and no set in seams anywhere in the quilt.
- One unit, learnt once and repeated. Make a single block first to get the placement under your fingers, then work through the rest assembly line style. Two cut sizes carry the entire top, which makes the cutting session unusually restful and means a mistake costs you one small unit rather than a whole block.
- Room for a whole bundle of prints, with plain squares to rest the eye. The centre squares take a fat quarter bundle's worth of prints alongside a set of solids, so the quilt holds a lot of variety without turning busy. Those four plain 20-3/4" squares among the pieced blocks are doing real work, giving the stars somewhere quiet to sit against.
Finished quilt size: 92" x 114"
Techniques: Square in a square units, triangles cut from squares, sashing, straight seams
You can download the full pattern here: Download the free pattern (PDF)
Looking for the print fabrics this one asks for? Have a peek at our fat quarter packs. The pattern takes four 4-1/8" squares and five 5-1/4" squares from each fat quarter, which sits comfortably inside a standard 18" x 22" cut, so a pack gives you the variety across the stars without buying yardage of every print. We would love to see how yours turns out!
Happy quilting!
