Easy Hunter's Star Quilt Pattern with Accuquilt

Is the Hunter's Star Quilt on your list of quilts to make?  Are you worried about making this quilt because it looks complicated?  Fear not, this quilt is simple to make especially with an Accuquilt Go! Hunters Star Block on Board die.

The Hunter's Star Quilt block looks really complicated with all of those diamonds and what appear to be Y seams.  Well, it's actually quite easy to assemble and there are NO Y seams.  

The Accquilt Hunter's Star block on board die makes a finished 12" block. The Hunter's Star block actually consists of four 6" blocks which are sewn together into the finished 12" block.

Our quilt was made Milo and myself using our Accuquilt Go! Big cutter, the Hunters Star Block on Board die, and a free tutorial from Accuquilt.

The Hunters Star Quilt die made the cutting of the pieces for this quilt very easy and quick. The die cuts off the points on the triangles so there are no points to be trimmed after the blocks are sewn together.

We made our quilt smaller than the one in the Accuquilt pattern since we wanted a lap size quilt.  But then we added borders to our quilt.

We also have a Hunter's Star table runner pattern!  Click to see that pattern.

Keep reading below to find out more about this quilt and how we made it.  Watch the video tutorial below for more information.

WHAT YOU NEED for the hunter's star quilt

• Accuquilt Go! Cutter (Go! Me, Go! Big or Go! Big Electric)
• Accuquilt Go! Hunter's Star Block-on-Board Die
• White Fabric
• Dark Blue Fabric
• Backing & Binding Fabric
• Neutral or White Thread
• Go! Festive Hunter's Star Quilt Pattern
• Sewing Machine with 1/4" foot attached (foot is optional but it makes it easier)
• Scissors

INSTRUCTIONS For the hunter's Star Quilt

Selecting the Fabrics

We wanted our quilt to be a winter-themed blue & white quilt so this summer we searched a couple of quilt shops for the perfect fabrics.

We finally found this navy blue fabric made by P&B Textiles named Sparkle Suede Navy with White Sprigs.  This is a beautiful navy fabric with small metallic branches printed on it.  This will make a special Hunter's Star quilt!

The white fabric is from QT Fabrics Basics Quilting Illusions Curly Cue Blender.  This fabric has small curls printed which blend with the fabric.  This allows the navy metallic fabric to shine.

For the backing, we selected a fabric named Perch Metallic Pine Branches by Hoffman Fabrics.  This fabric is also a dark blue and printed with metallic branches.  

Look at the end of this tutorial for links to purchase this fabric.

If you'd like to make your quilt a different size, calculate the yardage you will need using Accuquilt's Fabric Reference Chart.

Cutting & Assembling the Hunter's Star quilt Blocks

To learn how to cut the fabric and assemble this block, please visit our Hunter's Star Quilt Block page.  This page includes a video and detailed photo tutorial on cutting and assembling the Hunters Star Quilt Blocks including lots of tips for success.

If you are not familiar or would like to learn more about the Accuquilt Go! cutting system, click the link for our review, demo including pros and cons.

Assemble the Hunter's Star Blocks

There is one important point about assembling the quilt blocks to repeat here. 

VERY IMPORTANT TIP FOR YOUR FINAL QUILT! When creating the 12" blocks, make sure you are sewing the 6.5" blocks together in the exact same orientation.  If you are not consistent, when you try to put the 12" blocks together they will not alternate colors properly.  

So, in the photo above, by my finger, the large blue triangle is on the left and the white on the right.  Be sure to sew together all 6.5" blocks the same way with the blue on the left.  If you sew some with the blue on the right, they will appear to work but then when you try to put those blocks into the final quilt, the colors in the corners will not alternate properly.

You can see the problem in the two blocks above.  The final assembly of the squares into the 12" block was completed differently in the one on the left than on the right.  

Notice when the blocks are put side by side, the colors do not alternate properly.  No matter which direction these two blocks are placed together, it will not work. 

So, be sure that when assembling the final four smaller blocks together into the full block, you have the pieces in the same orientation for each block as shown in the photo below.

Assemble the Hunter's Star Quilt Top

Once you have all of your 12" blocks made, lay your quilt out on the floor or on your design wall.  If you've assembled each 12" block identically, the blocks will fit together and alternate colors perfectly.

The one thing I did check was that I oriented the blocks so that the seams will lock together in the same way as when you assembled each block.

By orienting your blocks so the seams "lock", it will make your final stars come out with perfect matching centers.

Do a final check of the whole quilt to make sure no blocks are out of place!  Then, start to sew together the blocks into a row.

When sewing the blocks together, I used a few pins at the seams to make sure they did not slip while sewing.  Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Once you have two rows of blocks sewn together, those rows can be sewn together to make the final quilt.  Below is a closeup of our quilt top sewn together.

Adding the Borders

For our quilt, we decided to add a 2.5" border around the quilt. You can add any size border to your quilt to add a little more to its size.

If you have an Accuquilt 3" strip cutting die, use this to cut strips.  We needed 6 strips at 3" wide.  Since the quilt is longer than 40", we needed to miter the strips together to get a strip long enough to put on the sides of the quilt.

If you would like to learn how to miter the border strips together, visit our tutorial, How to Join Quilt Binding Strips.

Sew the borders to the sides of the quilt first.  Then add the last borders to the top and bottom of the quilt.

Below is our finished quilt top with the borders.

Quilting the Layers

A friend of ours, Becky Carr, of Sugarloaf Quilting, did the fabulous quilting design on this Hunter's Star quilt with her longarm quilting machine.

We decided to use a simple spiral pattern for the quilt design with white thread.  We love how the quilting turned out.  Thanks, Becky for your quilting expertise!

If you are not going to use a longarm quilter to quilt your Hunter's Star quilt, the next steps would be to Layer and Baste your quilt.  I prefer to pin baste, but you can also use spray adhesive to hold the layers together.

Choose the quilting design for your quilt and quilt the layers together.  There are many options for quilting the layers as simple as straight lines across the quilt or stitch-in-the-ditch to more complex free motion designs.

Binding the Hunter's Star Quilt

For the binding, I decided to use a flange binding method.  The binding is made from the same two fabrics used on the front of this quilt with the white fabric as the flange.

I like this binding because it’s machine sewn on the back and the front, so no hand sewing is required.  I also like the look the flange gives some extra interest and a little break between all of the blue fabric.

The photo below shows the back of the Hunter's Star quilt.  The backing fabric also has metallic pine branches imprinted on it.

We hope you enjoyed learning about this Hunter's Star Quilt and consider making one yourself.  

If you do not have an Accuquilt Go! and would like to make a Hunter's Star Quilt, check out this Free PDF Tutorial by Fat Quarter Shop.

 Happy Quilting!

Chris 

Below are some other Accuquilt tutorials you may be interested in.