Love the star quilts and blocks.

I'm no help as I lost some of the points in my block the other day and am too woozy to work on it and figure it out. :P

Love those blocks. Where does the pattern come from?

I am making these star blocks for a swap. Very easy to put together and no problem with the points. Not sure if this is what you had in mind as these are made with jelly rolls and fabric or as I did, cut my own 2 1/2 inch strips. Got this from a tutorial on Youtube from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

beautiful blocks!
thanks for the tips on not loosing your points! i lost a couple points even using the thangles.
if anyone looks at my quilts that close..i will snatch it back! ROFL!

i got it from the jinney beyer website. she has tons of free patterns. this one is called seaside star. it is her take on the mariners compass. she also has a mariners compass like one that I am starting to cut out to tackle. can't wait. think i might need one more fabric to make this. hubby will be upset but oh well. hehe i used batik and think that they add a new depth to them. but that is just me.

Terri Atkinson's "Lucky Star" pattern is a good one that doesn't lose the points.

Conjuring up the concept of making a few squares (maybe 4 by 4 inch finished square ) of stars to serves as part of the bottom of a skirt for one of my dolls 4 kids with cancer. It would be something I could do just now and then. The skirt pattern is 48 inches in width, so 12 of them stitched side by side would work nicely and use up some smaller scraps. HUMMMMMMMMMMMM. I also think one could save money by using a computer program to make thangles at home, or just draw out your own, Adding one inch or making a 5 inch square into a thangle. Use that cheap tissue paper from the dollar store for a template if one wanted, but I think a thin cardboard would serve best as the original 5 inch square to make a 'thangle' from. Hope this isn't clear as mud. Maybe I 'll try that concept to make a different look for a couple dolls. Thanks for the idea, Purple Passion.

Vickey

I agree with bj above - on one of Alex Anderson's Simply quilts show, a viewer asked your question and the response was to skip the 7/8" bit and just make the square a full inch larger than needed. It adds the extra step of cutting it down to size but it's no fun to get to the step where you square up your half square triangle and find that it's too small...
Thangles work well. I also have Triangulations CD by Brenda Henning that lets you print out a foundation for whatever size you need but this adds the cost of the CD, paper and the most expensive printer ink.
It is important to sew with a precise scant 1/4" seam but if you have tried and
are still having trouble, then the cheapest solution is to cut 4" squares to get
3.5" HalfSquare triangles and not 3-7/8".
Console yourself that there would not be so many products out there if this were as easy as it seemed to be before you tried it.

The easiest way I have found to make those star points is to use the method of sewing two squares together on all sides with right sides together, 1/4 in. seam all around. Cut on diagonal to make 4 half square triangles (hst). then just turn those hst around a square of the same material and get all those points without cutting off anything. There is a stream on this site that give you the measurement for the squares in order to get the correct size hst. Missouri quilt also has a youtube demo to do the hst that way.

Me too. It's always better to cut down. I also sew a scant 1/4 inch and make sure the point intersection is outside the seam line. Your eye catches a cut off point much faster than a little bit of the background fabric showing through.