Ohio Star Block Exchange

We Frankfort Girls have had a lot of fun in the last year or two with block exchanges. Our current exchange is to make 9" Ohio Stars. We try to set as few rules as possible, but we did agree that the fabrics should be in the reproduction fabric range and the stars are to be neutral while the background is dark.

My first four blocks are done and I have 45 to go. Whee! I will be going into chain-piecing mode soon, but I just have to see a few blocks completed as I begin a project. It seems to be a requirement for me; I do it all the time.

These four blocks are dark navy and dark green; I believe the camera phone fails to accurately read the true colors. Our final quilts will be quite dark, most likely, but very pretty for sure.

The rest of my fabrics are pulled, stacked up and waiting in the wings. Part of the reason I didn't go straight to cutting all of it was for the purpose of avoiding unnecessary waste. I started by cutting two darks and two lights for the stars I have finished. You can see from the next picture that I cut way too many larger squares; I ran out of small squares for corner blocks. After some math to correct that (*scowling and frowning*), I will go into chain-piecing mode. 

I cut those first stars in rather a willy-nilly fashion, and have been left with way too many squares for making pieced parts and not enough squares for the corners. The large squares are 4.5" and they end up making the star points which are simply hourglass blocks. The small squares are 3.5" for the corners and center.

This excess will not go to waste. I will put them aside, proceed with cutting the rest of my fabric with numbers firmed up. All leftover parts will be mixed together and I will make stars with mismatched parts. I am confident they will play nicely with their more orderly neighbors. They might even add some spice to my eventual quilt.

Happy Quilting, Friends!