Quilt Festival Blog

A Journey Through Quilting History

Author: Y. Bilan-Wallace

Part Nine

Patchwork

Quilt blocks traditionally feature geometric shapes such as squares, triangles, rectangles, hexagons, and circles. These blocks are first sewn into strips, which are then stitched together to form the quilt top.

Most geometric patchwork designs follow an underlying grid system, which helps quilters draft patterns with precision. These grids allow designs to be categorized by shape, including:

Square blocks
Hexagonal blocks
One-patch blocks (with or without curved lines)

A crucial aspect of quilt design is the grid size. The 2×2 grid—which can expand to 4×4, 8×8, 16×16, and beyond—is one of the most commonly used structures. Even a simple Nine-Patch block, when paired with creative colour combinations, can result in endless variations.

The Star Motif

While many quilt blocks are based on square grids, eight-pointed star designs emerge when lines radiate outward from the centre of a square. Stars composed of diamonds, squares, and triangles have been reinterpreted in hundreds of variations.

Throughout history, the star motif has carried deep symbolic meaning:

A source of light
A symbol of hope and promise (especially in Christian tradition)

Star patterns appear in different formats:

As a single motif, like the Star of Bethlehem or Blazing Star
As a row of repeating patterns, such as the Variable Star
As a combination of large and small stars, like the Star of Bethlehem with Le Moyne Star
In clusters, such as the Star of Pleiades or Touching Stars