Spiderweb Star block

for small, strip scraps

I’ve just finished this month’s bee block for Comfort circle of do. Good Stitches, and it came out smashing! It’s not the simplest block, mainly because we must draft the foundation paper piecing patterns ourselves, but it certainly is snazzy.

Ta da! Since I am unsure of its real name, I’m dubbing this the Spiderweb Star. The queen bee indicated that we should use a single solid color for the wider band, where I’ve used a dark red. I think that gives it a real spiderweb effect.

The rest of the bands were to be scrappy and fun, and the background white. That’s a great recipe for a happy scrappy collaborative quilt!

To get started, I followed the queen bee’s direction for drafting the diamond foundation shape that forms this 8-point star. It’s a 45 degree diamond with lines at symmetrical intervals. As a result the lines match up even if you rotate a diamond.

Phew! That’s 8 paper star points ready to be sewn. The finished block will be 17” square.

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Now for the fun part: digging through my scraps. I’m seeking short, strip scraps 1.5” - 2” wide. Since I will be foundation paper piecing, the scraps don’t have to be cut to a precise size.

Here are my happy scrap piles at the ready! Yum. In the end I didn’t use any of the red scraps because it seemed best to let that dark red spiderweb band stand alone.

Whenever possible with foundation paper piecing, I like to start in the center, in this case with placing the red fabric strip. As a result I can sew strips onto opposite sides of the foundation, building outwards 2-strips at a time.

When I have sewn each band of fabric, I trim each diamond to match the original paper diamond shape. Then I tear away the paper strip by strip.

And it’s on to adding the background, which is made up of crips, white triangles.

Thanks to careful drafting and careful sewing, each and every band matches up! This is the magic of foundation paper piecing. It massively increases accuracy, in addition to allowing you to sew with fabrics that don’t have to be cut to a precise size.

Thanks for another fun block assignment!