Woven Star block easy method

by Linda Theil

I saw a quilt kit using this block online and wanted to give it a try, so I looked for the block and found a few YouTube videos showing how to make it and also some blog posts showing how to make the block. All but one option built the block using a piece-by-piece method that struck me as old-fashioned and tedious. A single YouTube video titled "How to make a perfect woven star quilt block" featured an updated piecing process. This is a very good tutorial that will be very useful to a quiter wishing to create the woven star block, but the demonstrator did not include any measurements for the pieces she was using, so while the method looked interesting, quiters would have to figure out the piecing sizes on their own. 

After some trial-and-error I came up with the following piecing measurements and diagram for a Woven Star block that finishes at 11-inches square.

NOTE: The joke's on me! A full cutting guide is provided by the videographer Tulip Square linked in the information included with the video. You can download the guide from https://drive.google.com/file/d/145AMpwgX-kHNjdweLObFio3B422nFdXr/view Her block finishes at 9-inches square.

Here is the plan I devised before thinking to check the MORE tab on the video. Maybe it will be of some value. LOL

To begin, choose your background and four contrasting colors for your star. (I tried to make sure my colors would show well in photographys, but apologize to the extent I have not succeeded.)

For each woven-star block you will need to cut: (as shown above)

• From each of four, star-leg colors: One 2.5 x 4-inch piece and one 2.5 x 6-inch piece
• From background: eight 2.5-inch squares and four 4-inch squares

To begin piecing, you will snowball a background square to each colored, star-leg piece as shown below.

Mark diagonal sewing lines.

Sew along marked line, then trim seam to 1/4-inch seam allowance.

Press seam open.

Repeat for all four colors of the star-legs.

After you have prepared all your star-leg pieces, you will assemble your block in quadrants.

You will need a large square backgrounnd block and a long leg of color #1, and a short leg of color #2.

Sew the short leg to the background square with the colored side of the short leg next to one of the background sides, as shown.

Sew the long leg to the sewn piece with the colored side of the long leg next to the long side of the sewn piece, as shown.

For your second quadrant, assemble a quadrant with the long leg of color #2 and a short leg of color #3. -- sewing the short leg to the background square first, then sewing the long leg to the first two pieces, and always keeping the colored side of your pieces adjacent to the background square.

For your third quadrant assemble a quadrant with a long leg of color #3 and a short leg of color #4.

For the final quadrant, assemble a quadrant with a long leg of color #4 and a short leg of color #1. Note how the position of the large, square, background piece rotates clockwise from upper left, to upper right, to lower right, to lower left.

Place the quadrants together with the four, large, background squares positioned in each corner of the block. Sew two top squares together, then two bottom squares together. Then sew top section to bottom section.

The photo below shows the position of the four quadrants assembled into one finished Woven Star block.

I learned recently that Fat Quarter Shop sells foundation paper for piecing woven-star blocks and is soon to release a video demonstrating this method. 

UPDATE Aug. 17, 2-24