A Few Feathered Stars: Miscellaneous Centers

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Late 19th-century

Once you've figured out the basic feathered star pattern

you can draft anything for the center square

May Louise Weeks

from the New Jersey Project at the Quilt Index

mid-19th-century

Four-Patches above

From the Nebraska History site

Victoria Caldwell, Rhea County, Tennessee

from the Quilts of Tennessee at the Quilt Index

mid-19th-century

A square in a square

Eliza Shields

from the Illinois project at the Quilt Index

This one's from Marie Webster's 1915 book labeled Feather Star

It has a 5x5 grid in the center.

Similar with a more complex center---the 5x5 grid

is cut into triangles

Sofia Noel

from the Quilts of Tennessee at the Quilt Index

Feathered center square in a Feathered Star above

You will notice many of these complex stars come from Tennessee where there seems to have been some real competition to create an interesting variation of the basic pattern.

Belle Specht,

from the Quilts of Tennessee at the Quilt Index

mid-19th-century

An Ohio Star above

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From the LaConner Museum collection

Railroad Crossing in the center

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Another Feather Star from the Illinois project

and the Illinois book History from the Heart. 

This one is a late-19th-century Civil War veterans' memorial.

I am not the first person to notice you

can put anything you want inside a feathered star---

Marsha McCloskey's been drafting patterns for quite a while.