How to Make a Patriotic North Carolina Star Quilt

Hi, quilters! It's Bea Lee from Beaquilter. I'm here to show you how to make this fun and quick patriotic North Carolina Star quilt that can be used as a kid's picnic quilt, a table topper or even a wall hanging. Follow along with my process!

With any new project, I always start with an EQ8 design.

Once I was satisfied with the design, I set to work on gathering all the supplies I needed:

• GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
• GO! Qube Mix & Match 8" Block
  • Shapes 2 and 8
• GO! Strip Cutter-3 1/2" (3" Finished) 2 Strips with Angled Guidelines Die
• 5/8 yards of solid red fabric
• 1/2 yard of red print fabric
• 1/2 yard of solid white fabric 
• 3/4 yards of solid blue fabric (26" is needed, so maybe get a tad more)
• 5/8 yards of white polka dotted fabric
• 1/3 yard of blue printed fabric (the one with flags)

Then, I started cutting! With a Block on Board (BOB) die like this, you can cut up to six layers of fabric in a single pass through your GO! Fabric Cutter.

Here's what I cut:

• Solid red fabric
  • Two 5 1/2" x Width of Fabric (WOF) strips
    • Subcut 16 of Shape A on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
    • Use the leftover scraps and cut out 32 of Shape E on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
  • One 3 1/4 x WOF strip
    • Subcut 16 of Shape G on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
• Red print fabric
  • Two 5 3/4" x WOF strips
    • Subcut 64 of Shape C on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
      • PRO TIP: I chose to angle the fabric on the die, so the narrow end of the triangle matches the grain of fabric
    • One 3" x WOF strip
      • Subcut nine of Shape 2 from the GO! Qube Mix & Match 8" Block
• Solid white fabric
  • One 5" x WOF strip
    • Subcut 12 of Shape 8 from the GO! Qube Mix & Match 8" Block
  • Two 4 1/2" x WOF strips
    • Subcut 64 of Shape C on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
  • Use the scraps and cut out four of Shape F on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
• Solid blue fabric
  • One 3 3/4" x WOF strip
    • Subcut 16 of Shape E on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
  • Two 3" x WOF strips
    • Subcut 16 of Shape D on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
  • Four WOF strips with the GO! Strip Cutter-3 1/2" (3" Finished) 2 Strips with Angled Guidelines Die (to use for the borders)
• White polka dotted fabric
  • One 5 3/4" x WOF strip
    • Subcut 16 of Shape B on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die (again, at an angle, like above)
  • One 3 3/4" x WOF strip
    • Subcut 16 of Shape E on the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die
• Blue flags fabric
  • Two 5" x WOF strips
    • Subcut 24 of Shape 8 from the GO! Qube 8" Mix & Match Block

Here's all my organized cut pieces, and the backing is ready in the bin as well.

Then, it was sewing time! I always look at the block assembly instructions and see how many seams I can cut in one sitting before going up to press. So, here, I did all the Shape E's, then solid blue Shape D's with Shape C triangles and the red print and white polka dotted Shape B's.

I often work on several projects at once, too! Here's a peek at what I was working on while doing the patriotic North Carolina Star quilt (five projects shown!):

I added more solid white Shape C triangles to the solid blue Shape D triangles, more red print Shape B's and finished the Shape E quarter square triangles. Then, I started on the Shape 8 rectangles for the sashing borders.

Adding the solid white Shape C triangles to the three Shape B triangles was not really tricky, but I had to double-check the directions as I really wanted to flip them. Good thing I looked, so I didn't have to rip anything out. Plus, the way the shapes are cut with the dog-eared corners cut off already made it easy to see how it would fit, too!

Then, I added the Shape A and Shape G red triangles (these could go together as well to make a block with a new look!).

To keep things straight in my head, I laid out the pieces like a 9-patch so that it's easier to visualize the full block assembly steps.

Then, I sewed the four blocks together.

Next, I added the sashing blocks, corner blocks and the 3 1/2" solid blue borders, which are cut as two 3 1/2" x 30 1/2" strips and two 3 1/2" x 36 1/2" strips.

The top finishes at 36 1/2" x 36 1/2".

To finish, I quilted with a meandering design with stars in white thread and used the same print from the back as the binding.

This design is fun in different patriotic colors! Here are a few other ways to think about making this quilt:

Or how about this colorway to make it non-patriotic?

As you can see by the design I used and the other ideas I came up with, I love the GO! North Carolina Star-12" Finished Die and how you can use it to make cute projects!

If you make your own version of this tutorial, please share the photo on social media using the hashtag #AccuQuiltBuilt and don't forget to tag @bealeequilter and @AccuQuilt so we can see your fun creation!