How to Create an Easy Version of Dolly Madison's Star Quilt Block

Posted by Elaine Huff on

Today let's look at a simple version of the traditional Dolly Madison's Star quilt block. This version is easy to sew together and looks great! The traditional block is very difficult to sew together - lots of triangles inside the star points - so we're going to use the simplified version. Let's get started!

dolly madison star

Fabric Requirements for a 9" Finished Dolly Madison Star Quilt Block:

  • Light/White: 1 - 4.5" square, 4 - 3.5" square, and 5 - 1.5" squares
  • Medium/Blue: 1 - 4.5" square
  • Dark 1/Navy: 4 - 1.5" squares
  • Dark 2/Navy Floral: 2 - 4.5" squares

dolly madison fabric requirements

Sewing Directions:

Hourglass Units:

Step 1:

Using the Light/White 4.5" square, the Medium/Blue 4.5" square and the two Dark 2/Navy Floral 4.5" squares sew together four Hourglass units as shown in the picture below. Trim the units to 3.5" square. You will find my tutorial for making these three-color hourglass units at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-hourglass-or-quarter-square-triangle-block

dolly madison 1

Center Unit:

Step 2:

Sew together a Nine Patch unit using the Light/White 1.5" squares and the Dark 1/Navy 1.5" squares like the one below. You can find a tutorial about different ways to make Nine Patch blocks at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-nine-patch-quilt-block

dolly madison 2

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Putting It All Together:

Step 3:

Lay out the Hourglass units, the Center unit, and the four Light/White 3.5" squares as shown in the picture below.

dolly madison 3

Step 4:

From here the Dolly Madison goes together like a basic Nine Patch block. Sew the patches together into three rows as shown below.

dolly madison 4

Step 5:

Press the seam allowances away from the Hourglass units as you can see in the picture below.

dolly madison 5

Step 6:

Now you can sew the three rows together to complete the block. Easy peasy!

dolly madison 6

Step 7:

All that's left is to press the seam allowances toward the center. You're done!

dolly madison 7

Conclusion:

I was ready for an easy block to put together and this star block fit the bill! Looks great and is so much easier than the traditional block.

I hope you've enjoyed this Dolly (or Dolley) Madison's Star quilt block tutorial. If you liked this post and want to see more quilting tutorials like this, simply click here to sign up for my newsletter and also receive a free PDF quilt pattern called Chained Weathervane.

Happy Quilting!

Elaine

P.S. You can purchase this block pattern at https://www.etsy.com/listing/1167387996/easy-dolly-madison-block-pdf-quilt-block

P.P.S. To figure out yardage for a quilt, check out this post: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-much-fabric-do-i-need


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