Free Pattern Friday: Tessellating Stars

I have made a Tessellating Stars quilt multiple times in the past 25 years. What's tessellating mean? Interlocking is the best word to describe it. If you know the work of M.C. Escher (a Dutch graphic artist), you know tessellations.

But I think pictures (especially for quilters) are the best way to describe this! First, a block.

Tessellating Star from my Quilter's Block a Day calendar

Now a quilt. This was in my first book, Bold, Black and Beautiful Quilts (AQS, 2004).

Tessellating Stars. 12" block; 59" x 59" quilt

And a small quilt with only 6 blocks. I split two blocks and put half on top and half on bottom.

6 Tessellating Stars blocks

Multi-colored stars with the same leaf print background.

Six blocks

And my Red and Gold Tessellating Stars (of four blocks):

Four bold, red blocks!

Now, here's a quilt I designed for Blank Fabrics several years ago. It uses some of those jelly roll strips (2-1/2"). I'm sure you must have some! This features only black and white (I'm sure you have some of those, too!)

I actually made a quilt for Blank. Not sure where it is now, but it's not in my house!

12 Tessellating Stars on my design wall

You can see that you need to audition color placement. I wasn't sure of having such a plain white as the background.

Auditioning blocks

And the final quilts. Quilt is 50" x 62" and the Table Runner is 32" x 44".

Both a quilt and a table topper

Here's the link to the Black and White Twinklers. The picture of the quilt shown above was left off the cover and I no longer can get it from Blank Fabrics (they were sold to another company). But this 6 page pdf has all the directions and illustrations to give you a beautiful quilt! Enjoy!