Saturday, March 9, 2024

Hen & Chicks Friendship Star Block 9

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This is one of the simplest blocks ever as long as you feel comfortable with making half square triangles.  There are so many ways to accomplish this blocks. Please use whichever method is most comfortable for you.  I am always a big fan of the easy angle ruler myself, but some people seriously object to having a stash of specialty rulers.   With the smaller sized blocks, there is a certain amount of safety in the making the subunits slightly larger to start and then squaring them up to make sure they are perfectly square and just the right size.  It is just too easy to add an inch to the finished block size and then trim a few slivers when you are not making a huge number of units. I used the easy angle for the larger block this time and the two at a time with a sewn line on either side of a center line method for the smaller block.  
However you decide to accomplish it, you will need 4 HST units, 4 background squares and 1 purple square.  

The trickiest part of this block is honestly getting all the star points arranged so that they rotate around the center square.  I like to have a reference photo sitting nearby. to compare.  
After the layout is confirmed, it is pretty quick to sew column 1 to 2 and then add the third column.  I learned this method from Elenor Burn on Quilt in a day and use it to web all of my quilt tops.   
Here is the finished block.  Quick and easy!
Even super simple blocks look adorable in tiny sizes.   
 

1 comment:

Gwyned Trefethen said...

It only takes one, ten or hundred times to realize that if is best to follow an image to layout the units before piecing the blocks. I can image quilts made from suggestion. Think of design a large block - say 24 by 24 with one 12" block, some 6" and some 3" ones. The mind boggles, especially if they are one in rainbow colors.