My star turned out the same way.... I certainly must be doing something wrong. The points still come right to the end of the square with no room for joining the blocks. I'm going to give up and go back to the plain old squares. I've made 2 quilts with using the 9 squares and I guess I'm not good enough to figure how to do anything else. I live in a small town of 250 people so no way to take a class. Its just the net and books that I'm trying to learn from.

Don't give up yet. I use the easy sandwich half square triangle method that's described here:

http://quilting.about.com/od/quickpi...squaretria.htm

It's worked reasonably well for me so far - maybe it will work for you too.

I will find time tomorrow to make the block and see what happens to mine.

I did see that last night when I was surfing the net and quick went downstairs and made one and cut it but it was after 10 and I didn't join them to see how it worked, but the points seem to come to the end of any triangle so I just can't see how you can join them without taking the points off.

The points will come to the end of the triangle and that's OK until you do the assembly of the final block. When you sew up the seams to make each row you take a little bit of fabric away and you get the 1/4 inch margin you need. This took me *ages* to get my head around.

I kept thinking the BOM instructions were 'wrong' but I could see everyone else was doing it 'right' from the BOM pictures people were posting. Then I finally worked it out.

If you want I'd be happy to do a block 'together' with photos across the ocean (assuming you're in the US.) PM me if you're interested. Only problem is my sewing machine is currently in for a service and I won't get it back for another week or so. Until then all I can do is cut fabric and post messages on this board. Keep trying, you'll get there :-)

I would absolutely love that. I'll work on squares until I can see how you are doing it. Thanks so much. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

This looks like a good set of instructions to work with for a 12 inch friendship star:

http://quilting.about.com/od/blockof...riend_star.htm

Have PM'ed you also.

That is the exact pattern that I used. It's where I found the pattern for the block. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I followed it exactly. It looks great, but the points of the star come right to the edge of the block, so if I use 1/4 inch to join, it will cut the tips of the triangles off.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-39554-2.htm
check page 2, I did a turtorial on the triangle

I made up a 12 inch friendship star block to fit in with my jelly roll quilt along blocks, just to try it out and so I could take some photos of the steps. Unfortunately I stopped taking photos too early in the process so I don't have enough for a tutorial. Still, thought I'd share. I did have to rip some seams along the way, but got there in the end.