Ohio Star

For my Old Glory Fourth of July quilt I used two different blocks for the stars section of the flag. One of them, Sarah’s Choice, is a 16-patch of half square triangles and squares so I did not feel a tutorial was necessary for that block. The other star block, Ohio Star, is a little trickier. This 9-patch is a made up of squares and what I call hour glasses (quarter-square triangles).

Here is the how-to for the Ohio Star Quilt Block:

Note: These measurements are for an 8″ block. Sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Cut fabric:

1 square 3 1/8″ blue
4 squares 3 1/8″ white
2 squares 4 1/8″ blue
2 squares 4 1/8″ white

Layer one white 4 1/8″ square atop a blue 4 1/8″ square. Mark the diagonal and 1/4″ on each side of the diagonal:

Sew on each of the 1/4″ lines. Cut on the diagonal. Open up your half square triangles (HSTs) and iron to the dark:

Sandwich the HSTs so that blue and white are opposite each other. Mark the diagonal and 1/4″ on each side of the diagonal:

Sew on each of the 1/4″ lines. Cut on the diagonal. Open up your hour glasses and iron flat:

Trim down each hour glass to 3 1/8″ squares by treating one of the diagonals as a straight line and trim off the top and right side to just slightly larger than 3 1/8″. It is important that you line your ruler up so that the 3 1/8″ line is touching the edge of blue-on-white: Flip the block and now align your ruler with the cut edges. Finish to 3 1/8″: