VP of Projects Patti Auten walks us through the blocks for month four during our May meeting.
Welcome to Month Four! We're tickled you're going on this journey with us!
You should have received a shoebox filled with fabric from another participant along with FOUR improv blocks. (remember last month you brilliantly made TWO blocks)
Month Four – Twinkle Twinkle Little Quilt (Look at all the blocks you've built!!! Hee hee!)
This month we're going to learn how to change a simple lowly star into a set of SUPER STAR improv blocks!
1. Using the fabrics in your box, along with a piece of your signature fabric, you're going to make a simple star quilt block. The pattern is below:
- Cut FOUR 5 inch squares of background fabric.
- Cut FOUR 5 inch squares of fabric (to use for half square triangles)
- Cut FOUR 5 inch squares of a different fabric (to use for half square triangles)
- Cut a center square measuring approximately 10 inches (can fussy cut or
- use strings/made fabric/ etc for interest)
To Make the Block
1. Put your 5 inch background square face up. Put your 5 inch fabric square on top. Draw a diagonal line across the fabric and sew ¼ inch on either side of the drawn line. Cut in half and you will have two half square triangles. Repeat with the other three sets. Trim (they may be more like 4 ½ inches in size when you are through.
2. Once you have made and pressed your half square triangles, measure them and cut the additional squares to the same size. In addition you will cut your center square to twice the size of the half square triangles. (i.e. if your HSTs are 4 ½ inches, you will cut your center square to 9 inches). As you go along you will have to resize your pieces.
3. Lay out and assemble your square and sew together. Don’t forget to press the seams to one side.
***note – in the center of my block I used a striped fabric to add interest- can you use any of the fabrics in your box in an interesting way?***
2. Once you've made your star block, press. Select a piece of fabric the same size as your quilt block. Place the quilt block on top and the piece of fabric in the back with both right sides up.
3. You're going to make a gentle curving cut starting at the top right of the star and ending at the bottom left. Make sure it's a GENTLE curve.
Once that is done, make two cuts on the bottom pieces of the star.
Now you have four pieces of star and four pieces of the solid fabric.
4. You will rearrange the pieces of the star so that you have two star pieces and two solid pieces for each square. Lay out each square and work only with one square at a time in order to avoid confusion.
5. You will reassemble the top square by reversing your cuts, i.e. you will sew the bottom pieces of the square, press, then you will sew the gentle curved pieces together.
6. Once you have sewn the first block together, you will now assemble the second block.
Press both blocks and square up and you're DONE. Don't forget to sign your name on the form on top. Place both blocks into the box and pat yourself on the back!!!
P.S. – here’s a couple of cool tutorials on how to sew curves without heavy pinning!
~~ Patti Auten, VP of Projects