Hen & Chicks September Block 1 - Spiky Star

 

I have seen lots of versions of this star out there, so I am not sure to whom to attribute it. I feel like Bonnie Hunter did it as a leader and ender challenge at some point in the past. I also found a Lori Holt tutorial on You tube with a more controlled version which is what sparked my memory. I have a quirky fun quilt in Virginia with spiky wonky stars together with shoofly blocks that I just love. Wonky is a relaxing way to sew, but you can also do this more traditionally if that is what you prefer. 

Start with one center square and 8 background squares all of the same size.  Add in an assortment of smaller squares in a range of sizes. I happen to have a drawer full of 2 inch squares that I pulled from, but you should use whatever you have on hand. 

Place a square into one corner four of the background squares. You can draw a line of course, if you care about perfect consistent points, but I chose to be free and wing it!

When sewing, you can sew corner to corner along the diagonal, or any straight line closer to the corner. I tried to use a variety of distances to vary the spike size of the finished block. As long as the flip and sew triangle will cover the corner, then it is good. Make sure that your seams are straight though, that part is important

Flip and press. Depending on the seam that you sewed, you might have some amount of extra fabric extending beyond the edge of the original square. Trim everything even with the base square. 

Then trim away the extra layer of fabric to leave just the spike. You can use scissors or a rotary cutter as the seam allowance is no longer critical.  

Repeat this process with the other spike. 

Now you have 4 pieces with 2 spiky points each along with background and your center square. 

Arrange the spikes around the center square and fill in with background corner squares. 

Sew as a nine patch, pressing away from the spikes. One of the nice things about this block is that it doesn't have any points along the outside edges to try to match. That does leave quite a bit of blank space though, which would be fun to fill with some extra flip and sew triangles in the outer corners if you were making a full quilt.