The Kansas Star (or Crystal Star) quilt block is a classic block that first appeared in print in the Kansas City Star publication. The block is made entirely of square in a square patches so it is easy to sew together. Let’s get started!
Fabric Requirements for a 12″ Finished Kansas Star (or Crystal Star) Quilt Block:
- Light/White: 4 – 4.5″ squares, and 20 – 2.5″ squares
- Medium/Print: 5 – 4.5″ squares
- Medium/Blue: 8 – 2.5″ squares
- Dark/Purple: 8 – 2.5″ squares
Sewing Directions:
Square in a Square Units:
Step 1:
Using a Medium/Print 4.5″ square and four Light/White 2.5″ squares, sew together a Square in a Square patch. You can find my detailed tutorial for making a basic Square in a Square block at https://quiltembroiderypdf.com/how-to-sew-a-basic-square-in-a-square-block. In the picture below you can see the first four steps.
Step 2:
Repeat Step 1 on the other two corners of the Medium/Print 4.5″ square to complete the patch.
Step 3:
Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for a total of five Print/White Square in a Square units like the ones in the picture below.
Step 4:
Using the Light/White 4.5″ squares, the Medium/Blue 2.5″ squares, and the Dark/Purple 2.5″ squares sew together four White/Blue/Purple Square in a Square patches like the ones shown in the picture below. Note the placement of the 2.5″ squares.
Putting It All Together:
Step 5:
Lay out the five Print/White square in a square patches and the four White/Blue/Purple square in a square patches as shown in the picture below. From here the block goes together like a basic Nine Patch block.
Step 6:
Sew the patches into three rows as shown below. This is the hardest part of this block – getting those points to meet. Just take your time and don’t worry if they’re not perfect (mine certainly aren’t!).
Step 7:
Press the seam allowances toward the Print/Blue/Purple square in a square units.
Step 8:
Sew those three rows together to complete the block!
Step 9:
Press the seam allowances away from the center of block as shown in the picture below. You’re done!
Layout Suggestions:
Here’s your basic 4 x 4 layout. It’s a little too busy for my taste. Although you do get the darker star and a lighter star (the medium blue points) showing up.
And here is that basic 4 x 4 layout but with dark sashing and light cornerstones added.
In this example, I added in a pieced sashing and cornerstones to get another star to appear (the medium blue star). This also creates a light area for some fancy quilting!
For this layout I alternated every other block with a modified blue and white “Stepping Stones” block.
Here’s the same idea as the previous layout but it is set on-point with light setting triangles.
For this example I’ve used the basic layout but put it on-point.
Here’s an on-point layout using the pieced border and cornerstones idea.
And here I’ve added sashing and cornerstone to the basic on-point layout.
