Hello Dear Reader,
I'm totally addicted to fabric and any one who says I have to much is a liar! Anyone who quilts know, you never say no to more fabric and when people kindly send you charm squares, you just know you can find a use for them. To make this block, you will need some charm squares or random 5" squares. This block is great for putting anything with anything! You will need a couple of meters or yards of a contrasting pale fabric. This has a beige background with a white relief. This would be great made from old shirts or bedding and this design can take any fabric as long as there is a contrast between light and dark.
This is what you will need for one block.
1 X 5" square of pale
8 X 2 7/8" squares of pale - these will both form the star and it would be effective if you used the same fabric for these
8 X 5" squares of darker but all different
I first make 5" strips, simply by marking, snipping and tearing - I always tear longer or larger pieces of fabric - trust it, as it always follows the grain. Next, I cut them on my board with a rotary cutter and ruler into 5" squares.
I then cut 2 7/8" strips. As above, I then cut the strips into 2 7/8" squares by slicing the strips with my rotary cutter and ruler.
I have plenty of charm squares which so many of you lovely readers have sent me and I'm delighted to have a project to use them up. You don't need the same fabric to make all of the stars, just make sure the stars are from a pale fabric and the rest is of a contrasting darker colour or colours. You could choose a colour palette or as I have done, go completely random.
Here is the angle that you will turn it to so you can sew it. I chain sew the lot in one go. But to begin with, just concentrate on each square.
Place your ruler on the seam and slide along until you have a quarter on an inch allowance and then cut with your rotary cutter.
Iron the block open and it will look like this.
Now repeat with the other side. Line up the corners so it's square and then sew on the diagonal.
Iron and open up the block and you have the points of the star. Repeat with four blocks.
Lay all of your block out so you can choose how you want it to go together.
Sew into strips either vertically or horizontally. Use your 1/4" seam foot to have regular seams when sewing the block together. Press flat.
Now sew each strip together and you have the finished star block. This measures to 13" square.
As a word of caution to any impatient quilter, never sew your entire quilt together until you have all your blocks. You may not have been able to use all of the same fabric for the squares but as long as it's pale and you intersperse the blocks randomly, it will look acceptable in the end.
I'm going to be able to make up a quilt quite quickly with this block and I've already got one on order for Christmas so I need to get a move on and make this as soon as possible.
I hope that was helpful to anyone who has any spare 5" squares that they had already cut and had a stash of. It's certainly a quick and easy block. Now, as ever, over to you Dear Reader. Does anyone have a block in mind that they would like a tutorial for? Does anyone want a sewing tutorial of any sort? I mainly quilt but I will have a go at anything if people would like a tutorial.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxxx