Happy Tuesday Everyone! I hope the day treats you well! I am guest posting over on my guild’s blog – South Sound Modern Quilt Guild today and I have a great quilt block tutorial for you along with a couple of quilt design options too!
This is the Kansas City Star designed by Olie Mae Rogers in 1940. This my modern take on the block. Head on over and check it out!
How in the heck did November get here already?!? I am not ready for this but at the same time I am glad it is here because that means we are that much closer to my hubs coming home.
I am participating the Glorious Autumn Quilter’s Block Party over at Quilting Gallery. My day is November 13th. I am super excited. I started working on my block last night. Here is a sneaky peek of my block and the last one you will get to see between now and November 13th!
Welcome back for part 2 of the Feathered Star Tutorial – this will be assembly. I have done an all picture tutorial for you – I am a visual learner and for a technique like this I think it will be really helpful. If you are looking for part one (cutting) – go here.
NOTE: ¼” seams are of vital importance for this block. Check that you are using an accurate seam allowance BEFORE you start piecing this block. ALSO! Be sure that you do not stretch the triangles when sewing them.
We will start with putting together the HSTs that you made yesterday following the 2 wonderful tutorials I linked to: I recommend chain piecing your pairs together for speed.
The star points are assembled in pairs. Here is the layout before for each pair, you will make 4 sets.
Starting with the right side point, you will assemble the diamond section first:
Assemble the left section the same way, except you will need to reverse the pieces
Next assemble the right side center section:
Add left side of center section:
Make sure that you stop sewing at where the sections meet (1/4” from end)
Add inside triangles:
Add diamond sections:
Add top triangle, start with the left side:
Next sew right side:
Make center “peekaboo diamond”:
Assemble the border for the center section:
You have now assembled all of the sections – you are ready to layout your block – it is a basic 9 patch now! Sew it up and you are done!!!
The first time I assembled this block it took me 3 days, but keep in mind that I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have a tutorial for the block that I designed, I just went with it. I have now made 3 of these and the third one took me 2 nap times to assemble (that’s about 4 hours total) – 1 nap time to cut, 1 nap time to sew. I measure all my sewing time in nap times 🙂
Good luck and if you make one of these from my tutorial I would love to see it and if you have any questions, please let me know! And don’t forget to enter the Fat Quarter Shop giveaway for a Layer Cake of Quilt Blocks – which is what I am using to make my feathered stars!
I’m linking up to SewHappyGeek Manic Monday and Quilting by the River Tuesday Linky Party.
Let’s start out with a little disclaimer…this block looks intimidating and scary, but once you break it into small sections, it really isn’t that hard. Especially if you use the bias strip piecing method for the HSTs – I am sending you to 2 fabulous tutorials.
I am going to show this tutorial in 2 parts, cutting with links for the HSTs and then assembling on Tuesday. I think that will be a good break, as cutting takes me a good while.
Finished block size – 15.5”x15.5”
You will need:
2 Squares: 10×10” of focus fabrics
Scraps from 4 different fabrics
Peekaboo fabric for center – 4.5″ square
White Background fabric
Sewing Machine
10×10 inch quilting ruler
Quilting Ruler with 45⁰ lines on it
Nice to have but not necessary: 45⁰ Ruler by EZ Quilting or Marsha McCloskey Feathered Star Ruler
Cutting White Fabrics: Everything is pictured with the Feathered Star Ruler – but you can easily cut these with the 10” ruler listed above.
Using Larger 10×10 ruler to cut next one:
Simple Squares
Using 45⁰ Ruler – cut diamond shapes – 8 total
Using standard quilting ruler marked with 45⁰ markings:
Cutting for center square:
Half Square Triangles (HSTs):
I used the Bias Strip Piecing method to assemble my HSTs. I learned this method from 2 fabulous tutorials. One by Erin at One Piece at a Time and the other by Molly at It’s Molly’s Place (you will need to scroll down a bit to get to the triangles).
For this block you will need 32 HSTs measuring 1.5”. You will use the two 10”x10” squares for this – the part that is confusing from both tutorials is how wide to cut your strips – follow their method for cutting and sewing and cut your strips 2” wide.
Come back tomorrow and I will show you how to put it all together! And don’t forget to enter the Fat Quarter Shop giveaway for a Layer Cake of Quilt Blocks – which is what I am using to make my feathered stars!
I was so excited when Kim from Kim’s Crafty Apple asked me if I would be interested in doing a tutorial for her Home Sweet Home QAL. I immediately jumped in with both feet and said YES! A couple weeks later PANIC set in – as it always does when I have a deadline and absolutely NO idea what I am going to make. At first I tossed around the idea of a Tree House of some sort – after all Anne is obsessed with Berenstain Bears and as you probably know, they live in a killer tree house. As I played and tooled around, I ended up designing a few blocks in EQ7 of scrappy little trees.
If this is your first time to my blog, WELCOME! Please take a few minutes to look around, I have a tutorials page with over 30 free tutorials for quilts, blocks & techniques and I am hosting a very generous giveaway right now from Fat Quarter Shop.
The nice thing is that each individual tree makes a 6.5” (6” finished) block – so if you would like to make 6” blocks from the individual trees you can.
Three of the trees were made using the Tri-Recs ruler – provided to me by Fat Quarter Shop (stop by tomorrow for another tutorial and for a review on it). I have provided PDF downloads of templates for those of you who do not own the Tri-Recs ruler and would like to make this block.
For the Double Tree Block – please go here to download the templates.
For the Pine Tree Blocks – please go here to download the templates.
Each of these blocks was made entirely out of scraps – including the Kona White background – I used 1 strip measuring 3.5” wide for the entire project. All seams are ¼” – you can press open or to the side (whatever is comfortable for you).
For the Double Pine Tree Block – cut scraps according to image:
First you will want to create your “tree sections”
Next you will want to assemble the individual tree sections (effectively splitting the block in half):
Finished block measures 6.5” Square
For the two Striped Pine Tree Blocks you will want to start by sewing together 5 strips of fabric measuring 1.5” x 12”
Then using the Tri-Recs ruler or the provided templates – you will want to cut out your tree sections. One will be horizontal stripes, the other will be vertical (simply turn the fabric before cutting):
Following the cutting measurements on the next 2 images for the background and tree trunks:
Sew your sections together and voila! Two scrappy pine trees
Sorry about this next block – it was easier to show you the cutting measurements on a partially assembled block:
(The technique is the same for each section of the tree, I am demonstrating on the center section – the first section is small and it was hard to get good pictures)
With one white strip at a time, place it perpendicularly on your green strip and use your ruler to draw a line from the upper corner of your white fabric to the bottom corner of your green fabric. Do the same on both sides of the green fabric. Your lines should slant down on your white strips in opposite directions (picture flying geese, except these are rectangles not squares).
Next place your white strip on the green strip and sew along the line you drew. Trim to ¼” and press open, repeat with the other white strip. Once trimmed the entire strip should measure 6.5” long.
Sew on your bottom section with the tree trunk and you are done! Block should measure 6.5” square
Layout your 4 blocks in a way that makes you happy and sew them together!
Please let me know if you have any questions at all or if you need more pictures! And thank you Kim for hosting such a fun QAL and allowing me to be a part of it!
I’m linking up to Quilting By the River
