How to Adjust the Checkered Stars Quilt Pattern to Work with Stripes

I recently made a Christmas version of the Checkered Stars Quilt Pattern and needed help remembering what to do with directional fabrics.

Then I remembered that I had written up this Newsletter-exclusive tutorial a few years ago and decided that if I needed help with directional fabrics, it should be a full blog post rather than only something seen by those who had had subscribed to my newsletter back then.

PS, if you haven’t already joined my newsletter, you should!  Sometimes I have sales or discounts that only they know about, and occasionally even tutorials just for them.

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A Very Stripey Checkered Stars Quilt

As I started to make a new baby quilt version of Checkered Stars (all the pretty pinks and maroons and grays) I realized that several of the fabrics I chose had stripes.  As I puzzled through how to make the stripes all go the same direction in each quilt block, I realized that you may also have the same questions, so I wrote up a quick tutorial.

Please note, this tutorial not a replacement for the pattern.  You will still need the Checkered Stars pattern in order to make this quilt, but continue reading if you want to incorporate stripes or other directional fabrics into your Checkered Stars.

How to Use Striped Fabrics in Checkerboards

Start by cutting your fabric according to the pattern directions, but don’t sew any strips together yet.   Match your checkerboard pairs.  For any pair that includes stripes, cut two squares off the end of both fabrics in the pair.  What size to cut your two squares?  The same size as the width of the strip from the pattern.  Turn the striped fabric (maroon in my photo) 90* so that the stripes go the opposite direction as the rest of the strip.

Here’s a zoomed in view of the maroon stripes.

Sew the two maroon squares to the two gray squares, and the maroon strip to the gray strip.

Cut the remainder of the strip set according to the pattern instructions.  You will end up with the same number of units as the pattern instructions, two of them will have stripes pointing the opposite direction to the others.

Workspace

Place the center square of the star in the middle of your work space, and then lay out all of the units around it, making sure to orient your Checkerboard 1 and Checkerboard 2 according to pattern directions.  Move pieces around as needed to make all stripes point in the same direction.  Sew the four corner four-patches together and return to your work space.

Now it’s time to make the star points, using the larger checkerboard squares.  Again, check the pattern directions for what size these should be cut.  Place the striped fabric onto your work space, and orient the squares so that the stripes face the same direction as the rest of the stripes.

These are the spaces (fuchsia squares) that these half square triangles are going to go.

The white lines show the placement of the half square triangles, and thank goodness, it’s easier since they all angle the same way!

Place the squares for your star fabric half square triangles over the maroon squares (right sides together), without shifting the maroon squares or changing the direction of the stripes.  Draw a pencil line on the back of the square, the same angle as the white lines in the last photo.  The lines are exaggerated here, because the pencil line doesn’t show in the photograph.

Half Square Triangles

If you need a refresher, here is where to find a Half Square Triangle Tutorial.

You will also need to make two pairs of half square triangles with your star fabric and other checkerboard fabric, but I didn’t show those in photographs because my gray fabric doesn’t have stripes, and the process is covered entirely by the pattern directions.

Follow the rest of the pattern directions to make your completed Striped Checkered Star quilt block.

Here’s my finished scrappy pink and gray Checkered Star baby quilt!  Some of my fabrics have stripes, but not all.  And I used a diagonally striped gray and white fabric for the binding.

Checkerboard Stars Quilt Pattern

What About Directional Stars?

Thinking about making a Checkerboard Star with fabric that is directional, with a clear top and bottom?  Go for it!  I think the best bet, at least for block number one, is to cut all checkerboard squares individually, rather than trying to use strip piecing, but it will still work.

While this tutorial focuses on directional fabrics in the checkerboards, it will also work for directional fabrics in the stars, this Fa La La La La star is the proof!