Sneak Peek - Carpenter's Star

placing HSTs in the correct position
June 2020

Here's a sneak peek at my current sewing/quilting project. The dark fabric looks black in the photo, but it is actually dark navy. Both fabrics were used for backings for previous Quilts of Valor and are the same print, only different colors. At this point the pieces haven't been sewn together. This is the first Carpenter's Star quilt that I've made. 

According to Wendy Russell at Patchwork Square, "The Carpenter's Wheel quilt block has been around for a long time and is also known by a few other names ... Star of Bethlehem and Carpenter's Star. Most of the time, this block is made using squares and diamonds, but I have chosen to make this pattern using half square triangle sets, rather than the diamonds, to bypass distortion of the bias edges from the frequent handling, and also this method avoids the dreaded set in seam. My view is why do it the hard way, when you can choose the easy way?

Now the down side of using the half square triangles is that there are more pieces to sew together. However, the ease of making the block far outweighs the numbers, (in my humble opinion). Also, due to the number of pieces in the block I have labeled it as an intermediate level of difficulty ... for that reason only. The good news is that you can make a big block, so fewer blocks to sew."

 Borders will be added to this center section to increase the size of the quilt.