EQ7 tutorial Tuesday- Star blocks, which to choose?

I was thinking about this lesson (I believe I missed one, two weeks ago)

I got the idea of stars!

There’s so many star blocks out there and if you’re designing a quilt, often a star block is a good block as an alternate block.

But then which one do you choose?

I’m going to show you how I “think” about picking a star block in a quilt.

If you search for “star” under blocks in EQ7 you get the first 50 show up

there’s also a section called STARS and variable star and a nine patch star category

there’s a variable star and ohio star, 8 pointed star

under “stars” there’s quite a selection too!

and variable star

Here I chose several star blocks

Lemoyne stars

friendship stars

ohio stars

8 pointed stars

and variable stars

BTW do you see those little boxes at the bottom left of the box? that’s the size of your blocks, how you’re viewing them, I have the 2nd one selected

if you pick the 3rd one  you get 3 rows

If I should sort these stars into different categories, they’d be split into a 9 patch group, a 16 or 4×4 group and then leMoyne stars are by themselves.

Why is LeMoyne by itself?

If you look at the block and make it 8” the points of the stars don’t point to a whole inch mark

same thing if it’s 9”

that’s because the diamond that makes the star is a perfect symmetrical shape!

The variable stars are great for a 4 patch or 16 patch (4×4) and the points of the stars line up perfectly if the size is divisible by 4, here it’s at the 1 and 3” marks, it would be 2” and 6” if the block was 8”

The ohio star star block is perfect for a 9 patch layout,

anything divisible by 3

So when designing a quilt and if you want to use a star block as an alternate block, it’s really the main blocks that dictate WHICH type of star block to use

Here I added a bunch of fun blocks and of course in EQ they are already grouped nicely some are even named nine patch and have star blocks in there, so it’s a given that it would work well together.

But look at this.

a kaleidoscope block is not quite made in a nine patch grid

But look what happens when I add a LeMoyne star block to it

a perfect match!

your eye flows well with the lines and they all melt together sort of, unlike the nine patch above, you’d look at the quilt and think that it wasn’t pieced together accurately or that something was wrong…

Then there’s some blocks that don’t go with any star blocks or it really doesn’t matter like the pinwheel block

Personally I don’t think I would pair up a pinwheel block with any of these star blocks, because there’s no flow….

UNLESS you add a sashing

then there’s a break in between the blocks and each is set in their own place.

Now this hour glass block (in the four patch category) goes well with the variable star. Because the math is the same, the hour glass block is a 4 x 4 block and you can split the star block into that too.

An Ohio star block goes well with a nine patch

or a monkey wrench block.

Any block that’s a 3 x 3 layout

here’s “road to california”

and with the friendship star

8 pointed star blocks are in this category and goes well with rolling stone blocks too

Of course I help myself and have to color it fun ways

here the focus is one the circles that I made in the rolling stone blocks

here it’s more on the stars

and stars but also the diamonds

anyways, I could go on and on playing with colors and star blocks in EQ7!

Hope you try it and come up with some neat ideas!

just remember to look at the star and see if it’s based on a 9 patch or a 16 patch or something else!?