The Ohio Star
Once you've mastered the
Quarter
Square Triangle, The Ohio Star is a very easy block to make.
There are many variations of
this block. We are going to begin with the basic Ohio Square.
There are many things you can
do to make this block different. You can reverse the coloring,
or highlight the center block by "fancy cutting" a special piece of
fabric.
When you hear the term "fancy
cutting" that just means cutting a piece of fabric so that you get
an exact pattern where you want it. For instance, if you
have a fabric with pictures of dogs, perhaps you would want to
center one of the dogs right in the middle.
You can usually figure out
where you want to cut your fabric and just use your ruler, but
you can buy plastic templates to mark squares. They are hollow
on the inside, so you can see exactly what you are cutting and draw
a mark around the square.
For those of you who purchased 4-inch squares,
we are going to make use of them for those project. We are
going to use them to make our
Quarter
Square Triangles.
Pin, right sides together, a
dark fabric to a light colored fabric. Proceed with marking
your lines and cutting as in the Quarter Square Triangle Challenge
Block.
Your quarter square triangle
squares will end up measuring 2 3/4 inches. (Note that this
is 1 1/4 inch less than the 4-inches you started with.
Remember the 1 1/4 inch rule for quarter square triangles,
found on the
Quarter
Square Triangle Challenge Block Page)
Now all you have to do is cut a
center square 2 3/4 inches, and 4 corner squares at 2 3/4 inches.
When you sew them together, be
sure to match seams, and make sure that you have the 1/4 inch seam
allowance at the end of your points.
Watch how your seams go
together. They should be turned in opposite directions.
I pressed my middle row towards the center, and the other rows away
from the center.
When you sew your rows
together, you can press either way, but I usually try to press away
from center blocks.
If you have practiced your
lessons, you will be excited at how easy this beautiful block was to
make, and begin to imagine the possibilities!
