Rolling Star Quilt Block Tutorial

By: Elaine Huff

Today let's look at this cute 8" block called Rolling Star. This Rolling Star quilt block is an easy block to piece together. If you can snowball a corner, you're good to go on this block! Let's get started!

Fabric Requirements for an 8" Finished Rolling Star Quilt Block:

Light/Solid Aqua: 1 - 4.5" square, and 4 - 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles
Medium 1/Light Aqua: 2 - 3" squares
Medium 2/Aqua Print: 4 - 2.5" squares
Medium 3/Dark Aqua: 8 - 2.5" squares
Dark/Navy: 2 - 3" squares

Sewing Directions:

Center Unit:

Step 1:

Using the Light 4.5" square and the four Medium 2 - 2.5" squares, sew together a Square in a Square unit as shown in the picture below. You can find my tutorial for making a basic Square in a Square block at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-square-in-a-square-block

Half Square Triangle Units:

Step 2:

Next you need to make four Half Square Triangle units using the Medium 1 - 3" squares and the Dark 3" squares as shown below. Press the seam allowances toward the Dark fabric. Trim/square up the units to 2.5" square. You can find the tutorial for making a basic Half Square Triangle (HST) at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-half-square-triangle-block

Flying Geese Units:

Step 3:

This is the last unit for the Rolling Star. Using the four Light 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles and the eight Medium 3 - 2.5" squares, sew together four Flying Geese units. Basically, you will be snowballing two corners of a rectangle - that's not so hard. You can find my method for making the Flying Geese block at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-flying-geese-block

Putting It All Together:

Step 4:

Lay out the Center unit, the Half Square Triangle units, and the Flying Geese units as shown in the picture below.

Step 5:

From here the Rolling Star block goes together like a typical Nine Patch block. Sew the units together into three rows as shown in the picture below.

Step 6:

Press the seam allowances toward the Flying Geese units as shown below.

Step 7:

All that's left is to sew the three rows together, and...

Step 8:

Press the seam allowances away from the center of the block as shown in the picture below. You're done!

Layout Ideas:

This is the basic 4 x 4 layout using colors similar to the tutorial. The star kind of gets lost in this layout.

Here's the same layout as above only adding in narrow (1") sashing and cornerstones.

This is an alternating layout where every other block is a Snowball block. This creates a lovely diagonal grid and leaves a large open space for some fancy quilting/embroidery/applique.

Here's another alternating layout using a chain block for the alternate block.

This is an on-point layout with narrow sashing in a coordinating color and the setting triangles are another coordinating color.

And another on-point layout with a simple chain block for an alternating block that extends into the setting triangles.

Conclusion:

This little block went together so quick and looks great! I think I may have to start sewing a few of these blocks using my scraps!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial for the Rolling Star. 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. Looking for more star blocks? Take a look at these tutorials: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/tagged/eight-pointed-star-blocks

P.P.S. Check out my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/fabric406