Quilt · Overall
Six-pointed stars
Stars of a hexagon and six points that meet point to point, with hexagons between.
- Setting
- Overall
- Size
- 42" × 46¾"
- Known from
- England and USA, from about 1825–1850
- Origin
- Unknown, as for most traditional blocks
- Difficulty
- Medium · Triangles, geese and other angles cut with a ruler
History
Six-pointed stars belong to the same mosaic patchwork pieced over papers as the hexagons. The Quilters' Guild has a top by a Mrs Adamson from 1825–1850 with a large star in the middle and rosettes of hexagons round it, and the museum in Lincoln shows Rebecca Scattergood Savery's star quilt from Philadelphia of 1844, where friends have written their names on the stars.
Barbara Brackman shows repeated stars of diamonds in a quilt by Marina Jones Gregg of 1852 in the Charleston Museum, and more in museums in Kentucky and Virginia. She knows no printed name for exactly that colouring from before 1970, so "six-pointed stars" describes the pattern more than it is an old name.
How it is used
In QuiltCrafter the star is a hexagon and six points in one colour on the triangle lattice, and the hexagons between in the background's. Sewn as "Whole pieces" the points become diamonds, otherwise rows of triangles are sewn.
It is related to Grandmother's Flower Garden and Tumbling Blocks and to the 60° block Six-pointed star.
Related quilts
Sources
The text is our own, written from the sources below. Photos of the old quilts are in the museums' collections.
- Museum The Quilters' Guild: Hexagon Star and Rosettes Top
- Museum International Quilt Museum: Elegant Geometry: American and British Mosaic Patchwork
- Article Barbara Brackman: Tessellations: Hexagon 7, Repeated Star Shapes (2016)