Army Star Block tutorial

I will preface this tutorial by saying that the template is not user friendly and I took no pictures as I went so this is really a quick walk-through of how I made this block.  If you want to try it, please come back and ask me if you get stuck.  Here is the link to the template for the Army Star Block.  It is a fiddly complicated block and you already need to know how to piece curves, foundation paper piece and piece circles as the tutorial will not cover those.  Here is the finished block in close-up so you can take a closer look at how it is pieced as you go along.

And here are the step-by-step instructions:

1.   Print out seven copies of the template, two onto freezer paper if you have some.  If you are making a 12" circle as I did (which I then framed into a 16" block), you need to make sure that the templates have printed with 1" measuring as 1".

2.   First make cutting templates for the red curved stripe and the white curved triangle it attaches to.  Take the two pieces of freezer paper and add 1/4" seam allowance all around the curved red piece on one piece of freezer paper and cut that out.  Then add 1/4" seam allowance around the curved white triangle and cut that out.

3.   Iron these templates to white and red fabric and cut out five of each.  The freezer paper is ironed on for accurate cutting.  Once the fabrics are cut out, it can be removed.  Sew the red stripe to the white triangle.

4.   Using a lightbox or a window, pin the section you have made to the back of one of your five normal paper templates, right side facing away from the paper with the curved line on the sewn section matching with the curved line on the template.  Paper piece the rest of that piece of template as per the numbers - as if you had already pieced the red and white as 1 and 2.

5.  Piece the smaller triangle template - foundation paper piecing - as per the numbers and colours (you can of course change the colour scheme).

7.  Join these two sections together (look at the finished star to see where you need them to meet).

8.   Make five of these.  Join two together then join the remaining three together.  Sew the two sections together by sewing as far as the centre, re-aligning and sewing to the other side.

9.   Make an outer circle template by cutting out a piece of fabric as big as the finished block you are making and cutting out an 11 1/2" circle from it.  I made this outer circle template in four section and joined together but I have no template for this so you will need to make your own.  If you have got this far and this defeats you, let me know and I will help you.

10.   Piece the Army Star circle into the outer circle template.

11.   If you need help re-sizing this block, let me know and I will help you.

Please let me know if you manage to make these following these meagre instructions or if you get stuck along the way and please add any completed blocks to the Lily's Quilts Flickr group.