Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Ruler

What's that you ask????

Rapid Fire Hunter's Star is the name of the process and template that I have recently developed for streamlining the construction of the traditional Hunter's Star pattern Traditionally this design is one that required precision piecing of three different angled shapes - triangles, diamonds and trapezoids. All of these shapes incorporate 45 degree angles and thus involve bias edges and seams that are not easily aligned. After agreeing to teach several Hunter's Star workshops and not finding any method that satisfied my requirements of simple process with highly successful end results, I invented my own, the Rapid Fire technique.

The name indicates that this method is indeed much quicker than all other methods available on the market today, but let me assure you that not only is it faster, but it is very accurate as well. With good cutting, an accurate 1/4" seam, and careful pressing any quilter will be able to achieve great end results.

Now I've been a quilter for more than 25 years. For more than 20 of those years I've wanted to make a Hunter's Star design, but just didn't want to take the time and the amount of effort that traditional construction processes called for - not that I'm lazy, just extremely BUSY!!!!!! However, since devising this process and hand drawing my first set of lines onto a blank piece of acrylic plastic late in December 2004, I've made OVER 40 Hunter's Star project and class samples!!! That's wall hangings, table runners, crib quilts, twin quilts, full, queen and king size quilts! Several have been donated as fund raisers and have resulted in record breaking income for the specific organizations. Many are traveling to different shops and guilds as models for future classes. ALL OF THEM were FUN AND FAST to construct. And what's more they all look different. With the size options available on the two different rulers, the color and simple changes available throughout the process, no two of the quilted projects are alike.

So what makes this process so successful?

Basically the ruler is designed to help you through the construction process and is engineered with a high degree of accuracy and functionality. To start the process, three different size strips are cut

Strips wide enough to be able to cut into squares and then cut again into triangles
Strips wide enough to use the Rapid Fire template and precision cut the trapezoids and
Strips that will become the diamonds.

The key to the process is that the diamonds are never actually cut at diamonds, they stay as a strips and will eventually be sliced into diamonds, but only after they are sewn and secured. Thus no bias edges, no matching seam points, and high accuracy in the end.

I know this sounds confusing, but it works beautifully and is expertly illustrated and described in the booklet of instructions that accompany each template. Best of all, the instructions are illustrated for BOTH RIGHT HANDED AND LEFT HANDED quilters.

When all of the construction is complete the Rapid Fire Hunter's Star template is used to square up all of the blocks to a precise size thus making assembly of the quilted projects simple and successful.

There are TWO DIFFERENT SIZE RULERS designed to give four different size options for each size template. The PETITE STAR template makes blocks that finish to 5", 6", 7", and 8". The LARGE STAR template make blocks that finish to 7", 8", 9" and 10". Both are designed to follow the same construction process, but of course have different cutting measurements.

Following you can see some examples of some of the quilts and quilt tops I have constructed using this process. At the present time there are a few COMPANION PATTERNS available for specific quilts and projects, but more are being written daily.

If you would like to see the photos, check out the classes list for some of my basic pieces.

If you would like to order either the RAPID FIRE HUNTER'S STAR - PETITE STAR template, the RAPID FIRE HUNTER'S STAR - LARGE STAR template of any of the COMPANION PATTERNS, or my other orignal ruler, the TUCKER TRIMMER Check out my ebay store.

Please feel free to contact me with comments and photos of your projects.