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Broken Star or Star of Bethlehem Quilt
By: Penny Halgren
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Broken Star or Star of Bethlehem quilt
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The sun was not kind to the quilt in this picture. The colors of the quilt are blues and peaches. That aside, this quilt design is called a Broken Star or Star of Bethlehem.
The Star of Bethlehem is one of the oldest and most familiar of all the traditional quilt patterns.
The design features a Lone Star pattern in the center which is surrounded by small diamonds to form a star burst medallion.
This pattern is one of the few pieced patterns to come to the US from Europe. In the early 19th century it was normally seen with extremely elaborate chintz appliqués in the setting triangles and corner squares.
Currently a typical Star of Bethlehem quilt has large expanses of solid fabric which is used for elaborate quilting designs. In this quilt, the large solid blue areas are quilted with wreath-type designs.
Although each little diamond piece of this quilt was cut with scissors and hand sewn together when I made it in the late 1980s, if I were making the same quilt today, I would use strip piecing techniques and cut the fabric with a rotary cutter.
This is a relatively easy quilt to piece – the most difficult part is getting the center where all of the star points meet to lay flat.
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
Master Quilter