How to make a 12" finished quilt block COMPLETELY out of 2 1/2" strips!

I could have also called this post, "how I hacked a block made by Jennie Doan", but that might not have sounded as exciting:)

I followed this video by Jennie - except for the measurements.

Missouri Quilt Co star block video

I needed a star block for my Guild mystery challenge. I'm using two background colours and a package of 2 1/2" strips. I didn't want to have to start with pieces larger than 2 1/2" if I could help it AND I wanted the block to end up 12" finished.

Jennie's star uses jelly roll strips (2 1/2" wide strips) to make the start points, but not the background. Her block finishes at 11". 

So I played!

I used both of my background fabrics cut into 2 1/2" squares to make my background corners 4 1/2" unfinished.

Then I realized in time that my star strips would need to be longer - instead of 4" and 6", I cut mine 4 1/2" and 6 1/2".

The result is what I wanted! You can see I played with alternating my background colours to make 4 patches and tried to get the pattern to continue through the stars. If I was going to make another, I would make all of the star point squares of the same fabric!

I'm very happy with my hack and how the star block looks with the rest of my blocks.

Have you hacked a pattern?

With Joy,

Sarah V.