Oriental Star quilt block

Oriental Star

August 10, 1933-The following is the entire article about the Oriental Star quilt pattern as Nancy Cabot wrote it for her Chicago Tribune column.

"The star family continues to grow. It is without a doubt the largest in our collection. This member is known as "Oriental Star"-one of the newest additions to the group."

This looks like another variation of the Beautiful Star quilt block to me. The section that is pink in the Oriental Star block at the left has points where the Beautiful Star block is straight.

Beautiful Star

I made my 6" Oriental Star quilt block by paper piecing it. If you have never tried paper piecing or have tried and don't like it, you should take a look at my new How to Foundation Paper Piece tutorial. It can always be found on a tab at the top of this blog. I call it foundation paper piecing because it really is a form of foundation piecing. The foundation is paper instead of fabric. The tutorial shows my method for paper piecing which I think is much easier and less frustrating than the traditional methods I have seen.

These are the paper pieced sections I used for my Oriental Star block-

The middle two sections are sewn together and then the sides are added much like you might add a mitered border. I sewed the sides to the center block from seam line to seam line only first. Then I sewed the corner seam up to the corner of the center block. It went together easier than I had anticipated.

You can download my paper piecing templates here. This block can also be found in Electric Quilt's Blockbase program as #3894. 

I found one old pattern that looks like Nancy Cabot's Oriental Star block here. The block is called Home Again and is image #14.

I didn't notice it before I made my block but Nancy's drawing of the block in her column shows each of the large diamonds made from a different fabric but the smaller pointed sections are all made from the same fabric. I think that would make a very nice scrap quilt.

Tomorrow-Dutchmen's Puzzle