French Star quilt block

French Star

October 31, 1933-"French Star, our quilt pattern for today, was brought to New Orleans by French settlers in the earliest days of Louisiana's history," wrote Nancy Cabot over eighty years ago.

The French Star quilt block is a pieced design. I found an old pattern by Ruby McKim, a contemporary of Nancy Cabot. McKim's original full size pattern can be downloaded here. The block is 11".

This pattern is cut using templates. It would be a good design to hand piece if you like to do that. There are several "y" seams and it is a little harder to put together. This is not a beginner block.

You can download my templates here. French Star can also be found in Electric Quilt's Blockbase program as #3540 which is what I used to make my block.

Here are the main parts to the French Star block and how they go together-

Make four of the sections as shown above and sew them together like shown below-

There is an antique French Star quilt here and  an unusual scrappier version here. Both blocks have a different center than Nancy Cabot's or Ruby McKim's French Star block however.

Tomorrow-Irish Rose