Wow, are you ready? This is the last week of making blocks! Yippee! As a content creator, I can say whew, glad the hard part is over! This was a gob of work, and in the end worth every minute. And welcome new visitors, followers, readers, and subscribers. I am overjoyed you have taken time out of your day to be here, curious about my blog. Thank you, Thank you!!
Lets start with blue and the nice eight pointed star block. You will need to download and print out the templates I provide below.
Here are my blues I selected.
Lets start with the kite block, you will need pieces N, I, and G. I and G pieces will be of your background fabric. I have chosen a blue background that contrasts enough against my neutrals, but also contrasts enough with my blues to use. Be very careful in your fabric selection for the background.
You will take your medium blue piece and cut a strip that is 2 1/2 inches, lay piece N on that strip and cut 4 kites. On your back ground fabric, 2 1/2 inch strip you will cut out pieces I and G qty 4 each.
Using your N, I, and G pieces lay them out as pictured below. If your pieces are not looking like this, make sure pieces I and G are laid out correctly.
Sew all of your I pieces to your N piece, and press towards the dark. Repeat this step for your G pieces. It may be better for this side to press to the light.
My kite was not pressed, sorry forgot to snap that photo. Repeat this block 4 times and ensure your kite measures 2 1/2 inches. Set these blocks aside, you are now ready to make the triangle in a square.
Here are my fabric selections and templates. You will reuse pieces I and G, but also use piece H. H will be cut from your background fabric and piece I and G will be cut out of darker blue fabric, or whatever you assign to your 8 pointed star.
Again, cut 2 1/2 inch strips of the fabric you will be using. Place piece H, so that the tip of the triangle and the short base of the triangle are even with the edges. For some reason piece H printed out layout wise wrong when reading it. How I have it on the screen is how it needs to be on the strip.
Cut 4 pieces of G, H, and I.
Sew piece G to piece H in the layout shown above, and Sew I piece to H. Press to the dark side on both of these seams. Measure your triangle in a square block and ensure it measures 2 1/2 inches.
Cut one 2 1/2 inch square of your dark blue or whatever color you have chosen for your 8 pointed star. You have completed the gathering for the 8 pointed star BOM.
Layout your block as so. Sew your 9 patch nesting seams and spinning seams (optional). Pressing direction does not really matter on this block.
I love how this block turned out!
Next we will be doing the drunkards path block. I made this way harder in the video. I recommend using the pattern pieces and 3 fabrics not 2.
You will need the following pieces cut from your templates: A, B, J, K, L, M, and O.
I opted to use two fabrics. I recommend cutting piece M out of a third fabric.
Layout your pieces so that the slight curve of the piece will be on the bias. You will need forgiveness while sewing the curved seam. How do you make sure of this? Find a straight edge of any of your paper pieces and lay that with the grain or running parallel to the selvedge edge. Can you lay it against the grain? Yes. The fabric weave that runs parallel with the grain has no stretch. The fabric weave that runs parallel against the grain has stretch. Carefully layout these pattern pieces on your scraps. Your cutting of your pieces is key to the success of this block.
Sew together pieces M, L, and O. M being in the middle. You have created the moon of your block. Now sew pieces B, A, K, and J in that order. You have created the path in your drunkards path block.
And here is the hard part. I recommend finding the center of your moon by folding your piece in half. Pin the center of the moon to the center seam on the other half of the block. I then recommend pining the raw edges of the moon to the path.
The key to sewing a drunkards path block, is not aligning the fabric before your presser foot. I recommend ensuring that the seam allowance and raw edges are even at the needle. Having raw edges even at the front of your foot, will mess this up. I know you are used to making the alignment before it goes under the foot, but the key to the seam allowance being correct for this curve, you must keep the raw edges in alignment at almost the needle position. I do recommend watching the portion of the video that covers this on my youtube channel for clarity. And I did show how to flub this up. It is okay if you flub up. It is about 3 inches of seam ripping. When you get this block right, it is sooooo worth it!
After sewing your curved seam, I recommend placing some ease into the seam but cutting out little triangle notches in the seam allowance. Do not cut into the thread of your seam. And I recommend pressing this how the block wants to lay flattest. I pressed my moon outward.
You can see the wonkyness in this block. Just make sure it measures 6 1/2 inches and trim as necessary. This block was made to fudge a bit. As quilters, we know how to fudge, eh?
The hard part of this whole quilt is done. Now onto some easier neutral blocks!
Lets make the double pinwheel, you will need three fabrics.
For the darker/larger portion of the pinwheel you will need to cut two squares at 4 inches which is piece F in your templates. Cut those from corner to corner. You will need 2 different colors for piece 3 cut to three inches and again cutting those down the middle from corner to corner.
Layout as shown, Notice the placement of my darkest neutrals. I recommend this for your scraps.
Sew piece E to piece E and then sewn pieces E to F.
Trim each block to 3 1/2 inches and Sew this 4 patch together, nesting seams and pressing as you wish.
And lastly, lets make a 9 patch friendship star.
Here are my fabric choices, and yes, I am putting pink into all this blue!!!
Of your background in your block you will need to cut 8 squares at 2 1/2 inches. for the colorway in the 4 patch you will need four 1 1/2 inch squares of one neutral, and four 1 1/2 inch squares of a different neutral.
First, lets make the center of the 9 patch, and actual 4 patch.
Use 2 of one stack of your 1 1/2 inch squares, and use 2 from your other 1 1/2 inch squares.
After sewing your 4 patch, makes sure that this measures 2 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches.
Next you will need to layout your background pieces surrounding your 4 patch. This will assist you in knowing what corners need what fabrics for folded corners or snowballed corners.
On the remaining four 1 1/2 inch squares, draw a line from corner to corner placing right sides together on your background, and sew just on this side of the line. Open corner and press outwards. Measure your square. it should still measure 2 1/2 inches. If it does not, ripout seam and resew with a better 1/4 inch seam. Trim off unused portion of square to remove bulk in the seam.
Nest your seams, and spinning of seams is optional. Now we are ready to construct the very last 12 inch block of this QAL.
Pressing kind of matters in this block because of all the bulk up in that 8 pointed starburst block. I recommend pressing those seams away from the block. In the construction of the quilt, the pressing does not really matter. Do what you think is best. And notice my blocks are not in the order of the pattern? I switched them up a bit because I wanted dark and light, and the contrast of the surrounding blocks to work and play well with one another better. Ensure this block measures at 12 1/2 by 12 1/2. Trim accordingly.
I am very excited that the next step in this, is sewing all the blocks together and adding a narrow border. I am not sure if I will be able to go live for this on youtube. I guess we will wait and see.
Interested in the video portion of this with different details, make sure you head on over to my youtube channel and check that out. You can find all the blocks under the #ScrappyChurnDashQAL playlist. And you can always refer back to a page you may have missed by visiting my very first post with fabric requirements here. I have also been posting in the QuiltSpace App. Although I am limited to 500 characters, so I have been most referring back to this blog for instruction. And instagram will get you the pics in this blog, but no instructions. You are welcome to follow me on instagram to see what else I am working on in the background.
May your bellies be full, your body warm, your quilting spirit is pieceful. Thank you sew much for reading my blog!
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