Friendship Star Block Tutorial

Hello again, I hope you are having a happy, healthy start to the month of February. This week I am announcing the second mystery star  block in my Facebook Block of The Month group, and I thought it would be great to share the tutorial with my blog readers as well! This month's block is called the Friendship Star. This is a fairly easy  beginner block and will give you good practice in making half-square triangles. Variations of this block are the Ribbon Quilt Block,  the Nine Patch Star, and the Water Wheel Block.

Are you ready? Let's begin!

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Pieces you will need for one 12" block...

The above image shows the  pieces you will need for one 12" block. The 4 1/2" piece will be placed in the middle of the block. The 5" pieces will be made into half square triangles which will be arranged around the middle piece.

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Making the Half-Square Triangles (HST's)...

1. The first step in making half-square triangles (HST for short) is to draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of each 5" background square. In my block the background squares are white.

2. Second, place the background squares and the 5" patterned squares with right sides together.  This will give you four sets of squares.

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3.  Sew 1/4" seam allowance on both sides of the diagonal line for each 5" background square.

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These squares can be chain pieced for quicker assembly. Click the link HERE for an easy tutorial on Chain Piecing.

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4.  Carefully cut the sewn squares in half on the diagonal pencil line. This will give you two HST's as shown above.

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You will have eight HST's in all after cutting the four squares. Next, follow the directions below to prepare the squares for sewing them into the Friendship Star block.

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I like to use a nice steamy iron to press my HST's open. A little word of caution here...press  gently and take care not to over-do it, or you could warp the shape of your HST's.

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 Wasn't that easy? Now, you're ready for the next step!

Each HST should turn out to be 4 1/2" square.

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 5. Finally, we are ready to trim and tidy up our HST's using a square ruler. Click HERE to read my tutorial  How to Trim Half-Square Triangles in Three Easy Steps. Please don't skip this step...it really makes a difference in how your final block will turn out!

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Assembling the Friendship Star Block...

We're almost finished! You're doing great! Now it's time to lay out the squares into our block pattern as shown above using the 4 1/2" square for the middle piece of the block.

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Sew the top, middle, and bottom rows as shown above. Again, we are using a 1/4" seam allowance throughout the entire process.

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Using a steam iron, press the seams of the top and bottom rows  outward and the seams of the  middle row inward...this will help the seams lay flat when the rows are sewn together.

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Pin the top and middle rows together (as seen above) taking care to nest the seams in opposite directions as shown below.

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Sew a 1/4" seam.

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Pin the remaining row and sew in the same manner as above; press the seams from the back first and then press the front. In this case, you may prefer to press the seams open rather than to the side. This will also help the block to lay flat.

Lastly, trim the finished block to 12" if necessary using a 12" square ruler. Click HERE to see a wonderful tutorial on How to Square up a Quilt Block from the Crafty Mummy!

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Ta-dah! Give yourself a round of applause for completing your beautiful Friendship Star block. I'm so proud of you!  Remember, the time you invest in quilting today will find you that much more of an expert at it tomorrow!

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!Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you've enjoyed my tutorial on this beginner-friendly quilt block.  I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to leave a comment or question, and I'll promptly respond. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Happy quilting!