Free Pattern – Braced Star Quilt Block

Today let’s sew together a Braced Star quilt block! It finishes at 12″ and goes together on a diagonal grid. I also have several layout ideas toward the end of the post to help spark your inspiration. Let’s get started!

Fabric Requirements for a 12" Finished Braced Star Quilt Block:

• Light/White: 4 – 4.5″ squares, 1 – 5.25″ square cut in half diagonally twice for a total of 4 triangles, 1 – 3+3/8″ square
• Medium/Pink: 2 – 1+7/8″ x 6+1/8″ rectangle
• Medium/Green: 2 – 5.25″ square cut in half diagonally twice for a total of 8 triangles
• Dark/Black: 2 – 1+7/8″ x 3+3/8″ rectangles

I recommend that you spray starch all the triangle patches to help prevent stretching when sewing them into the quilt block.

Sewing Directions:

Center Unit:

The center unit is basically the beginning of a Courthouse Steps block. You can find my tutorial on the Courthouse Steps block at https://fabric-406.myshopify.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-courthouse-steps-quilt-block

Step 1:

First you need to sew the two Dark/Black 1+7/8″ x 3+3/8″ rectangles to opposite sides of the Light/White 3+3/8″ square as shown in the picture below.

And press the seam allowances toward the Dark/Black fabric.

Next you will sew the two Medium/Pink 1+7/8″ x 6+1/8″ rectangles to the long sides of the unit as shown below, and …

Press the seam allowances toward the Medium/Pink fabric.

Five-Sided Unit:

Step 5:

The first step in making this unit is to find the center of the long side of the Medium/Green triangles and the Light/White 4.5″ squares. Here you can see that I simply folded the patches and finger-pressed a crease at the center. I folded the Medium/Green patch wrong sides together and the Light/White patch right sides together so that when you match them up …

The creases nest together as shown in the picture below. You can use a pin to keep them centered.

Stitch the two patches together and…

Press the seam allowance toward the Medium/Green triangle.

Using another Medium/Green triangle, you’re going to match up the center of it with the center of an adjacent side of the Light/White square.

Stitch the Medium/Green triangle to the Light/White square as shown below and…

Press the seam allowance toward the Medium/Green triangle. Repeat to make a total of 4 Five-Sided units.

Triangle Unit:

Step 11:

Next you will need to sew two Light/White triangles to the Five-Sided unit as shown in the picture below.

Press the seam allowance toward the Light/White triangle as shown below. Repeat to make a total of 2 Triangle units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 13:

Sew two of the Five-Sided units to opposite sides of the Center unit as shown in the picture below.

Press the seam allowances toward the Center unit as shown below.

Almost there! Now you can lay out the unit you just made and the two Triangle units in diagonal rows as shown in the picture below.

Match up the seams – they should nest together nicely – and sew the rows together. I had to do a little bit of easing on one of the seams to get it to match up but it isn’t noticeable at all.

Press the seam allowances toward the center of the block as shown in the picture below. All Done!

Layout Ideas:

Here's the typical 4 x 4 layout using colors similar to the ones I used in my block. You could do some fancy quilting in the large background square or maybe embroidery/applique.

This version has sashing and cornerstones added:

Here are some ideas for using an alternating block.

And here are some examples of on-point layout possibilities:

In Conclusion:

This was a fun block to put together. Because it is set on the diagonal, you have to deal with bias edges and funky-sized patches. But it went together easily and I’m  happy with how it turned out.

I hope you give this Braced Star quilt block a try! If you like this tutorial and want to see more, just click HERE to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free PDF quilt pattern called "Chained Weathervane".

Happy Quilting!

Elaine

P.S. Looking for more star blocks? Check out this roundup post: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/30-of-the-best-star-quilt-block-patterns