I'm not real good at explaining-hope I help and don't confuse you more. I started with a basic 8 point star block-the one that's 1/2 square triangles. Each block finished out at 8 1/2 inches so the star itself finished at 32". I added angled and straight borders til it got to the size I needed. If you wanted a bigger star, I'd work in even numbers:8, 10, or 12" finished because that way graph paper works. (I'm terrible at math). Oh, the corner squares in mine were cut 8 1/2 inches. That includes the seam allowance.
Mine looks like the pic Native Texan posted but the star points are HSTs so there were no Y-seams.