Starting a Hunter's Star Quilt

The Hunter's Star is a simple, oddly composed block, which creates stars at its intersections with other Hunter's Star blocks.  There are actually several ways to make this block.  Deb Tucker mentions several of them here, before talking about her method.  As I see it, the various ways can result in only two final block options, which I illustrate below.

If you make it with HSTs, you can do it all by simple piecing, and think of it as a 4-patch with smaller 4-patches in the corners.  Pros: it's scrap friendly and easy to assemble.  Cons: it's seamy; you can't opt to lengthen or shorten, widen or narrow the star points. 

If you use the trapezoid block, you might piece it, or do foundation piecing, or use special rulers or templates.  There are even very old quilts where the larger block was a half-square triangle, and the star points were appliquéd.  Pros: you have more control over the dimension of the star points.  Cons: you have to cut less common shapes, which can warp with ironing and be tricky to sew.

Regardless of method, when you finish the block and tile it, you get something like this.

How strongly the stars "pop" depends on color choices.  They are bold when the quilt has only two colors, but they could also really pop if you chose faded colors for the arrowhead bits and bright colors for the star points. Conversely, if your color choices are more varied, or if the contrast between color and background is less stark, the stars could disappear a bit. 

FABRIC CHOICES

I fancy this might be a nice pattern to make for my sister, as well as to use my medium and dark scraps from my Cut the Scraps pile.  I just need to buy a bunch of fabric for the background.  So I get my sister on the phone while I walk around Pioneer Quilt Shop, taking pictures and texting them to her for feedback.  (Yes, I was THAT customer!)  She selects a soothing sage/seafoam green with white sprigs.  It has enough personality that it plays nicely with some of my scraps but not others... I think of it as directing fabric choices rather than limiting them! 

Then I contemplate what other colors I can add, and I like the look of rosy tones:

And here's how I press the seam allowances:

PATTERN

My pattern size is dictated by my Cut the Scraps blocks as well.  I have 2" squares and 3.5" squares.  A 4-patch made with the smaller ones equals the larger one, so I work from there.  My finished block is 6.5" unfinished, and 6" finished.  So guess what I do instead of going to bed?  ;)