guest post: athena p. "cooper's block"

introducing athena from the family pelton.

As you all know

Luc and I have been making ourselves

a friendship quilt

using Heather Ross's

Far Far Away II fabric collection.

This is my first quilting bee.

And, to be honest, every single block I made for our quilt

was a new endeavor for me.

I tried my hand at triangles

applique

dresden plates

log cabin

and I even gave block design a try.

Lucinda loves stars.

Friendship stars, wonky stars, 8-pointed stars.

You name it, she'll block it.

So I decided, 

if I am going to attempt to design my own block

you know, make one from scratch and all

a star would be most a propos.

And...since all of the blocks we've chosen for our friendship quilt

have a name

I decided to name her block

Cooper.

I guessing I need not explain why.

You'll have to forgive me

this is my first ever attempt at a tutorial.

You'll have to forgive me

this is my first ever attempt at a tutorial.

And I worry I didn't take enough photos along the way.

But as you'll see, this block is REALLY straightforward.

(This block measures 12" finished size. You'll need about 1/8 yard for the main part of the star, and the rest can be pieced using up your scrap collection!)

I started by cutting a 6.5" square piece of paper that I used to make the template for the star, and a 6.5" cardboard template for trimming/shaping. Here's a pdf version of the template I used. 

I then drew the center of the star on the sheet of paper, and added a 1/4" seam allowance on either side.  I cut this free from the paper and used it as a template for cutting my fabric.  

I used the same fabric in each of the four 6.5" blocks. You can do the same, OR get wild and crazy and use a different fabric in each quadrant

Once I had all the center pieces cut, I started adding strips of paper until I had a finished square.

I pressed ALL seams open and trimmed off the excess after each strip was added.

So as to make the most economical/efficient use of my fabric scraps.

I did this until I had all four quadrants made.  

Originally I was going to have the small end of each center piece meet in the middle

but after careful consideration

and some much needed input from my husband,

I went the other way.

And the end result is much more of a wonky star.

Which happens to be much more up Luc's alley!

Once all your quadrants are assembled, 

press all seams open

and trim the block to measure 12" square. 

Easy peasy!

Cheers!