Giant Vintage Star Quilt Tutorial

As promised, a tutorial for my Giant Vintage Star Quilt. This quilt takes advantage of a single quilt block, super sized! It takes a traditional block, the Starflower block, and makes for a very modern quilt. Perfect for beginner and advanced quilters alike. For more on my process and the inspiration behind this quilt, see this post: Giant Vintage Star Quilt.


If you'd rather have this tutorial in downloadable/printed form, check out the Giant Vintage Star Quilt Pattern. It features a throw quilt (same size as this tutorial!), baby quilt, and quilted pillow. The yardage for all the different color combinations is broken down to make it easy to customize your quilt!

Find the pattern in my online shop here: Giant Vintage Star Quilt Pattern.

Fabric Shops: If you'd like to teach classes on this design, I ask that you order paper copies of my pattern for each student. You can order patterns wholesale through this form. Please refrain from teaching directly from this tutorial, thanks!


I made my quilt entirely from vintage sheets, but you can use any fabric you'd like to make your quilt! There are lots of shops that sell vintage sheet fat quarters* on Etsy, if you want to make one just like mine! If you'd like to learn more about working with vintage sheets, check out my post: How to Identify, Shop for and Sew with Vintage Sheets

First, you need to decide what kind of color layout you'd like! You may choose to use as few as two colors or as many as eight. You could also use as few as two fabrics or as many as sixteen! I've drawn out a few options here as examples:


This is the layout I used, 8 different colors using 16 different fabrics.


A little less busy, 4 different colors.


And finally, just 2 colors.

However many colors you decide on, you also need to decide on how many fabrics to use. The traditional starflower block uses a single fabric for each 'petal'. In my quilt I used one color in each petal but two different fabrics. You may choose to do whatever you'd like for your quilt!


Sewing Level: Beginner Friendly
Finished Quilt Size: 68"x68"
Finished Block Size: 17" square

Giant Vintage Star Quilt Materials:
- 8 fat quarters (minimum, use up to 16)
- 2 yards of background fabric
- 76"x76" piece of quilt batting
- 4 1/4 yards of backing fabric (or a Twin bedsheet)
- 1/2 yard of binding fabric

Giant Vintage Star Quilt Cutting:
From each print fat quarter:
- Cut (1) 18" square

From background fabric:
- Cut (4) 18" squares and (4) 17.5" squares

Giant Vintage Star Quilt Instructions:

Use a 1/4" seam allowance unless otherwise noted.

1. Before cutting, you'll want to decide how much variety you want and what kind of color scheme you'd like. That will determine how much fabric you need and how you'll construct your quilt. If you don't mind prints repeating in your quilt, you can use 8 fat quarters. If you don't want any repeats and want more variety like mine, you will need 16 fat quarters, but you'll only be using half of each fat quarter, or you can make two matching quilts.

TIP: It can be helpful when working with large pieces to use spray starch or a starch alternative like Flatter by Soak* to help keep those long seams from getting stretched out. Spray before cutting.


2. Think about how you want to lay out your colors. This will determine which prints you pair up together. I've included this blank quilt diagram that you can print and color in your layout if you'd like!

3a. If you're using 4 or 2 colors AND 8 fat quarters, you'll be constructing your blocks using the traditional half-square triangle (HST) method. You need a total of 8 print + background HSTs and 4 print + print HSTs. So, create 2 pairs of print + print squares, and 4 pairs of print + background squares. You can use my Half-Square Triangle Tutorial if you need help with that!

3b. If you're using 8 colors AND/OR 16 fat quarters, you'll be putting together your half-square triangles a different way. You need to cut your print squares and 18" background squares in half across the diagonal.* You'll end up with a total of 32 print triangles and 8 background triangles. Take half of your print triangles and set them aside for another project, you won't be needing them to create this quilt top. Now, pair up 8 print triangles with your 8 background triangles. Take the remaining 8 print triangles and pair them up with each other. Sew each pair of triangles together to create 12 half-square triangles.

To make that diagonal cut, I temporarily taped a 24" ruler and a 6" ruler end to end with masking tape!

4. Once your half-square triangles are finished and pressed, they may need trimming down to 17.5"


5. Lay out your blocks, arranging your half-square triangle blocks like the diagram above to create the starflower petal shapes. Use the 17.5" background squares in the corners. Sew blocks together in each row. Press seams in one direction, alternating direction every other row. Sew rows together. Press seams open.


6. Making Backing: Cut backing yardage in half. Press. Trim off the selvedge and sew your pieces together lengthwise. Press seam open.

7. Basting: Using masking or painter’s tape, tape the backing to a clean, hard surface, right side down. Spread out your batting on top of the backing. Smooth out any wrinkles. Carefully spread out your quilt top on top of the batting, right side up. Pin your top, I like to use curved safety pins, spacing the pins a few inches apart. Make sure that your pins are going through all three layers.

8. Quilting: Quilt as desired, by machine or by hand. Trim away excess batting and backing fabric.

9. Binding: Cut yardage listed for binding into 2.5” strips. Trim off selvedges and sew your strips together to form one long strip, press seams open. Fold in half lengthwise, pressing with your iron as you fold. Attach binding using your preferred method. For a detailed tutorial on attaching your binding to both sides by machine: Machine Quilt Binding Tutorial.


I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial! I have lots of other tutorials for everything from quilts, pillows, bags, and holiday items to informational series and techniques. Find all my tutorials here: Tutorials. My online shop is filled with patterns for quilts and bags. Find my patterns here: Jeni Baker Patterns

If you make something using one of my tutorials or patterns, I hope you'll tag me @jenib320 and use my hashtag #jenibaker on instagram!

More projects made from this tutorial:
Liberty Lawn Giant Vintage Star Quilt

Looking to experiment more with super sized blocks? Check out the Vast quilt from my book, Patchwork Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle.

Photo © 2015 Lauren Hunt for Lucky Spool Media.

Happy Quilting!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.