Carpenters Wheel Barn Quilt Pattern
The Carpenter's Wheel is a star within a star, a workhorse pattern that honors farm and trade craftsmanship.
Planning the board? Use the sizing calculator for exact cell and border measurements, or read the paint color guide before you buy paint.
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Grid
- 8 × 8
- Colors
- 7
- Suggested board sizes
- 4′ × 4′, 8′ × 8′
About the Carpenters Wheel block
Carpenter’s Wheel has deep roots in American quiltmaking. The Smithsonian holds a Carpenter’s Wheel quilt made between about 1825 and 1850, showing that the design was already in use by the first half of the nineteenth century.
Related versions have appeared under names including Carpenter’s Star, Star of Bethlehem and Double Star. Its interlocking diamonds and triangles create the illusion of a wheel nested inside a star — a complex-looking design that becomes especially dramatic at barn-quilt scale.
Learn more about the history
Tips for painting a Carpenters Wheel barn quilt
Pre-cut a paper template for one diamond and reuse it for all eight — every wheel diamond is the same shape.
Three values of one color (light, medium, dark) reads as a wheel turning in light.
Ready to design your Carpenters Wheel?
Customize the colors in the online designer and download a printable paint-by-color plan with a grid diagram.
Open in the designerPainted the Carpenters Wheel? Share your photo.
We feature finished quilts from real makers in the gallery — it helps other painters see how the Carpenters Wheel looks in different color combinations.