Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.

This week I’m featuring a block called Star Puzzle made up totally of half square triangles. The block go together very quickly once the HSTs are built.

This block requires 3 different fabrics – a light value, a medium value and a dark value. This is a great block to work on creating contrast with the fabric. The block highlights 2 different pinwheels and an eight pointed star design. In order for these 3 designs to pop out the different valued fabrics are required. This is a block that has a lot going on and the pattern really dances as you look at.

Fabrics & Cutting Instructions

I chose to work with purple today. Two of the fabrics have a pattern and the third one is more tone on tone.

Three fabrics in light, medium and dark values

The block is a 12 inch block.

Dark Fabric

• Cut SIX (6) 4 ¼″ squares

Medium Fabric

• Cut FOUR (4) 4 ¼″ squares

Light Fabric

• Cut SIX (6) 4 ¼″ squares

A total of 16 squares are needed to make the block

If you want to make this block in a different size all you have to do is change the size of the squares:

For a 10″ block cut the squares 3 ¾″, for an 8″ block cut the squares 3 ¼″, for a 6″ block cut the squares 2 ¾″ and for a 4″ block cut the squares 2 ¼″.

Building the Half Square Triangles

Pair up 4 light squares with 4 dark squares.

4 light squares with 4 dark squares

Pair up 2 medium squares with 2 dark squares.

2 medium squares with 2 dark squares

Pair up 2 light squares with 2 medium squares.

2 light squares with 2 medium squares

Need help making half square triangles? Check out my post here on how to make half square triangles. To square them off give the square up ruler a try for squaring them off. Press the seam towards the darkest fabric.

Completed HSTs – 16 in total

Building the Block

Layout the blocks as shown in photo below.  Four rows of 4 HSTs each. Be careful to maintain the proper orientation of each HST.

Layout HSTs in this configuration

1.  Sew the first two HSTs together in each row. Press the seam towards the first HST in rows 1 & 3 and the second HST in rows 2 & 4.

Sew first 2 HSTs together in each row

2. Sew the second two HSTs together in each row.  Press the seam towards the third HST in rows 1 & 3 and the fourth HST in rows 2 & 4.

Sew the last two HSTs together in each row

3.  Sew the two units from each row together. Press the seam towards the second HST in rows 1 & 3 and the third HST in rows 2 & 4.

Sew the two units in each row together

4.  Sew rows 1 & 2 together and 3 & 4 together.  Press the seam in either direction. Take care to match the seems and pin as needed. Need help with pinning? Check out my post on To Pin or Not to Pin.

Sew rows together

5.  Sew the two units made in step 4 together taking care to match the seams. Pin as needed. Press the seam in either direction. The block measures 12 ½″ unfinished.

Star Puzzle Block

A very easy, straight forward block with great visual appeal.

Happy Quilting!

I shared this post on Craft Sew Create’s Farmer’s Wife Friday blog. Stop in some time to see some other great work: