The Bee Hive: Double Star

Hi all! It’s Christa here from Christa Quilts and I’m delighted to share my 12″ finished block for The Bee Hive with you today! It’s called Double Star and looks equally striking in black and white or color.

Here’s what the quilt layout looks like when the block is repeated. I just love the secondary pattern of stars and diamonds that is created when the blocks are joined together.

Stars and Diamonds Pattern Layout

The Double Star block uses half square triangles, fast flying geese, and regular squares. Follow the instructions below to make one block in black, white and grey. To make additional blocks, just multiply the piece count with the number of blocks you wish to make!

Cutting

• From White fabric, cut: 4 squares, 2 7/8″ x 2 7/8″; 1 square 5 1/4″ x 5 1/4″
• From Light Grey fabric, cut: 8 squares, 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″
• From Medium Grey fabric, cut: 4 squares, 2 7/8″ x 2 7/8″; 1 square 5 1/4″ x 5 1/4″
• From Dark Grey fabric, cut: 1 square, 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″
• From Black fabric, cut: 8 squares, 2 7/8″ x 2 7/8″

Make Fast Flying Geese

Lay 2 medium grey 2 7/8″ squares onto opposite corners of 1 white 5 1/4″ square, right sides together. Draw a line down the middle of the grey squares and sew 1/4″ away on either side of the drawn line.

Cut on the drawn line and open up the grey squares so they are sticking out.

Lay another medium grey square onto each of the triangle geese units and draw another line. Sew 1/4″ on either side of the marked line and cut on the line to reveal 4 medium grey/white flying geese units.

Repeat this process with the small black squares and the larger medium grey squares, to create 4 black/medium grey flying geese units. Don’t forget to trim off the triangle tips!

You should have 4 white/grey flying geese and 4 black/grey geese.

Make Half-Square Triangles

Layer 4 white 2 7/8″ squares on top of 4 black 2 7/8″ squares. Draw a line down the middle and sew with 1/4″ seams on each side. Cut apart on the drawn line and press seams open to reveal 8 half-square triangles. Trim off the tips and any slivers of excess fabric to 2.5″ square.

Make a total of 8 black/white half square triangles.

Block assembly

Lay out all 25 block units into a 5 x 5 grid that looks like this:

Join each unit into rows and press seams open.

Join the rows to complete the block and press seams open.

Bonus: For Electric Quilt Users

Click here to to access the EQ download file and save it in EQ7. (File works for both Windows or Mac versions of EQ7. Mac users may need to save the file first before opening to access).

Alyce’s Take

I’m not going to lie – I had difficulty with these flying geese! They may be “no waste”, but they certainly weren’t fast for me. Partly because my machine was playing up and trying to eat my poor little geese, but also because I’m not used to this method. When you’re not used to a method, you can lost some points, have some size issues and end up frustrated! But I got there in the end!

Some tips:
– Use a scant 1/4″ seam for the flying geese and HSTs. This means sewing a thread-width over from the line, or in my case – draw a line 3/16″ from the centre and sew along that line.
– If you are not confident in sewing accurate seams, up the HST squares to 3″ to give you some extra wiggle room and trim to 2.5″ square once you’ve sewn them up.
– Feel very free to press your row seams in alternate directions so that when you sew your rows together, you can nest your seams. It’s because of this that I was able to maintain as many points as I did in the end!

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You can find all the block tutorials on the original The Bee Hive post. If you’re sharing your blocks or quilts from The Bee Hive on social media, be sure to use #thebeehivequilts and @blossomheartquilts  and @christaquilts so we can find your awesome work!

If you are in a swarm for The Bee Hive, please see the quilting bee etiquette post for answers to any questions you may have. If it’s Star Plus specific regarding the block construction, please ask in the comments on this post and I will answer it here so that everyone can benefit from the question/answer.