SDS4912 Friendship Star Vol4 Stamp10

A simple little star with a big heart — and a surprising story behind its name.

The Friendship Star is a charming nine-patch block. Four half-square triangles turn around a centre square, creating a star whose points seem to spin gently, while plain squares fill the corners. Quick to piece and lovely in almost any fabric, it has long been a favourite to make and to share.

But here's the twist: the block is older than its name. The design was published as early as 1907 under the name "New Home" in the magazine Good Stories, and the Kansas City Star newspaper — whose weekly quilt patterns reached thousands of rural homes — printed it again in 1939 and 1953. Along the way it has also been known as The Lost Goslin and Wings in a Whirl.

The name most of us use today, Friendship Star, was popularised by quilt designer Jeffrey Gutcheon in his 1973 book The Perfect Patchwork Primer — the same designer behind the Card Trick block in Volume 4!

💛 Did You Know?

Friendship quilts were a kind of keepsake album made of fabric.

Quilt tradition tells of women making star blocks for a friend who was marrying, falling ill or setting off west by wagon. Each friend would sign or embroider her name on her block, and the blocks were joined into a memory quilt — a lasting record of the friends left behind. Whether or not those early makers called their stars "Friendship Stars," the custom of signature and friendship quilts is very real, and many such quilts survive today.

🧵 A Little Heritage

The Friendship Star is a lovely reminder that quilting has always been as much about people as about fabric — sewing circles, shared scraps and blocks passed from hand to hand. Quilters still carry the tradition on today, making blocks to comfort a friend in need.

We've captured this heart-warming design as Volume 4, Stamp 10 — the perfect stamp to share with a quilting friend — and another little piece of quilt history for your Heritage Quilt Society collection.