Sewcialites Round 2, Block 16

I have always been a dive into a quilt project or quilt block type of person.  This sometimes means I am trying techniques and projects that I might not know that much about before diving in.  Applique, no problem!…curved piecing, yes please!….paper piecing, why not!…hand piecing, I’ll give it a shot!

When Fat Quarter Shop asked me to join in on this round of Sewcialites with a block design, I was excited.  I had such fun with round 1 and new round 2 was sure to be a treat.  When they let us know that their theme for this round of Sewcialites was “blocks that made us crazy”…either crazy in love or crazy to piece…I knew just the block.

The Christmas Star block. =)  You’ll find the pattern for Christmas Star here.

I remember piecing my first Christmas Star block over 20 years ago.  It was complete with templates for all of those squares in the block and lots of bias edges from cutting all of those triangles individually.  It gave me fits! =)  Now, fast forward 20+ years, we have so many ways to go about piecing a block like this that don’t include templates or individual triangles.  When I submitted this pattern, I had some suggestions to simplify the piecing on this block and even in this 3″ size, I had no problem piecing it.  Yay! =)

We also have wonderful products like square in a square paper (that I used to make that cute fussy cut center) as well as triangle paper which makes small HSTs so nice to piece.

It was a lot of fun to re-visit this block.  I enjoyed sewing it up using Spring Brook fabrics mixed with Buttercup & Slate & I loved highlighting that sweet little bee in the center. =)  I hope you enjoy sewing up your block! Corey