Friendship Star Variation

The last two weeks I've been steadily working on the Brothers and Sisters Quilt, and am happy to say that I now have all the blocks finished!  One of my favorites was this friendship star variation:

At first glance the block looks quite complicated, but in reality it is very easy to make.  It's basically a friendship star with a diamond in the square as the center, and a sew and flip triangle added to the half square triangles.

For a six inch block you will need to cut four 2 1/2 inch squares of background for the corners and two 2 7/8 inch squares (cut in half diagonally for four triangles).  Cut one 2 1/2 inch square for the center, two 2 7/8 triangles (cut in half diagonally for four triangles) for the star, and eight 1 1/2 inch squares for the contrasting small star.

After you sew the four half square triangle units, place a small square at the lower left corner of the star triangle.  Sew a diagonal line across the small square like you are making a snowball unit.  Trim and press out.  Make a diamond in a square unit by sewing small squares on each of the four corners of the center square.  I like to sew the two that are diagonally across from each other, then trim and press out, and then add the final two small squares.  You can see what all this looks like before pressing below (this is a different color combination, so don't let the change in color confuse you).

Then assemble your block, making sure your star points are facing correctly!

OOPS!

This looks way better!  Good thing I was on my last block, I think it was getting to be quitting time!

You just have to do a little easy math to figure out how to make your block any size.  If you divide your finished block size by three you will know what size your finished units will need to be.  Add 1/2 inch to that for your center and corner squares, and for your half square triangles add 7/8.  For the measurement for the small triangles use 1/2 of your finished unit size and add 1/2 for the seam allowance.  So for a 12 inch block, your units will finish at 4 inches.  Cut your center and corner squares at 4 1/2 inches.  Cut your half square triangles at 4 7/8 inches.  Cut your small squares at 2 1/2 inches.  Not so hard, right?

Here is one of my 9 inch blocks.  So pretty!  I have one other block that I need to re-do, then I am ready to add sashing and assemble the center of the quilt, this project has taken a while to assemble so I am pretty excited to see what it looks all sewn together.  Then it's on to piecing the border!

What's under your needle today?