This is a visual guide to making a 9-inch Ohio Star quilt block using actual photos from making one 9-inch Ohio Star block.
Cut your pieces for the quilt block as follows:
Background Fabric – in the above photo, it is the blue on white fabric
4 3 ½ inch squares
1 4 ¼ inch square cut in half diagonally twice
Star Fabric – in the above photo, it is the light green tonal floral fabric
1 3 ½ inch square for star center
2 4 ¼ inch square cut in half diagonally twice for star points
Contrast Fabric – in the above photo, it is the dark green tonal leaf fabric
1 4 ¼ inch square cut in half diagonally twice for contrast
As you can see, my block is not perfectly square. It tends to bow a little at the middle row. I do not trim it because this is caused by the fabric stretching. When I sew the block into the quilt, I just keep the edges of the two pieces I am sewing even with each other and stitch a quarter inch seam. Once the quilt is completely finished and washed, it all looks fine. I use unwashed fabric when I am quilting so the fabric shrinkage outweighs any wonkiness in the blocks themselves and the washing helps bring the fabric back into shape.