Quick and easy star block tutorial

I love making this block.  Its quick, easy and stress-free with perfect points every time!!  I dont even use pins until the very last part.  Love that!

Let's make one.  You will need a dark and a light.  Cut a 4 1/2" square out of the dark fabric.  Also cut eight 2 3/4" squares from the same dark fabric.  Now, from the light fabric cut out four 3 1/2" squares and four 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles.

 

Now turn your dark 2 3/4" squares over and draw a line down the center from one corner to another.  Notice in the picture below that I have also drawn a line a half inch away from the center line.  Go ahead and do that too.

 

 

Place your little dark squares onto your light rectangles right sides together.  They need to be placed at the top upper right side with the second drawn line closest to the upper right corner.

 

 

Sew down that center line on all four of your pieces.

 

 

Then go ahead and sew down the other line that you drew a half inch away from the center.

 

Cut in between your sewn lines.  Set those tiny triangles aside for a while and iron the larger pieces toward the dark fabric.

 

Your rectangle will now look like the one on the left.  Next place a small dark square onto the left top of the rectange.  Make sure the second line is close to the upper left corner.  Do this on all four rectangles and sew them together like you did before.

 

 

Trim between the sewn lines as before, saving your little triangles.  Iron toward the dark.

 

Set up your star like this.

 

Flip the pieces on the left over top of the pieces in the center and sew them together.  Iron the first row toward the light square, the second row toward the dark square and the third row toward the light square.

Next, flip the pieces on the right over top the the center and do the same.

 

This is what your star should look like so far.

 

Now sew the top row to the center row.  This is the time to use pins so you can be sure to line up your seams.  Iron toward the center row.

 

Almost done!  Sew bottom row to center row, again ironing toward the center row.

 

Yayyy!!  A beautiful block!  It will measure over 10".  I squared mine to exactly ten inches but you could make it smaller if you like.

 

Now for all those leftover triangles.  Iron them open and save them.  After you have made several stars you will have plenty of these little half square triangles to make something else that's super cute.

 

Here's what I have so far.  My plan is to alternate light and dark backgrounds like you see here.  Im hoping to make a king sized quilt for my bedroom, but we'll see.  That would be a stinkin lot of stars. 

 

I hope you'll give this method a try.  I'm sure you will have as much fun as I did!!!

 

Happy quilting,

 

Jessica

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect star points on the baby quilt

This quilt was so much fun to make!  Mostly because it's for my new grandson, but also because of the technique I used for creating the stars.  This technique makes piecing stars faster and leaves you with perfect points every time without having to be careful.  There is NO WAY you can mess up your points!! Now THAT makes for fun piecing!!

It's 45x45.

I have so enjoyed making these stars that I bought some more fabric and just kept going.  I chose the Evening Mist line of fabrics by Moda.  I love the calming colors.  A completely different look from the baby quilt.

Next weekend I'll post a tutorial on how to make these stars.  So drop back in to check it out.

Happy quilting,

Jess

Memory quilt in the works

My oldest daughter and her husband are visiting from Moscow so they could have their baby here.  It's been an exciting time for us!  The baby came six weeks early though so the baby quilt I'm making didn't get finished in time.  I still have to quilt and bind it, but I love it and will be done soon.  I'm also working on this memory quilt for her as well.  The body of the memory quilt is almost done.  It is made entirely of Jinny Beyer  fabrics and Kona Snow and I found a great batik for the border.

I just know she will enjoy having this quilt for her friends to write on.

Happy quilting,
Jess

Wholecloth done!!!!

Well, almost.  I need to go over it very carefully today to see if I missed any spots.  I'm guessing that I probably did.

I have so much enjoyed making this quilt, even though it meant hours and hours of going cross-eyed with my nose to the fabric.  I really should invest in a magnifying glass for my machine.

Here's a sneak peak.  I don't want to show the whole thing quite yet since I will be entering it into a show.  Not that many people even view my blog, but showing just bits and pieces of a quilt before entering a competition seems to be what quilters do...so that's what I'll do too....lol.

 

You can see I decided to quilt my name right into the quilt.  I put my last name in too.  I don't want my kids to ever wonder if I made a quilt or not, so I always quilt my entire name.  Also, if anyone steals it, they sure can't claim it as their own.  Mostly, though, I do it for my kids.

 

Now back down to my studio to finish up. 

Jessica

Grandbaby keeping me from quilting today

Today I had big plans to get a lot of work done on that Christmas quilt I showed you yesterday, but life got in the way....stickiness to be exact.  Having a baby living in my house sure makes things sticky and just super messy in general.  So today I washed all the stickiness away and cleaned up the clutter.  Not nearly as fun as quilting but it had to be done!

Then I went out and bought him his first toy truck and little red car.  He sure does like them!  I raised three girls who liked dollies and coloring books so this is the first truck I've ever bought.  So fun for me!!!

Here he is enjoying his new toys.

I sure love this little guy!!!

Jessica

What I have on the frame

Here's a tiny peek at what I'm working on lately.  I'm back at it after taking a few days off to stare at my daughter before she moved away.  It's a real joy to quilt....so beautifully hand stitched as well as perfectly pieced.

 

 

I'm using wool batting to give it a nice loft.

And I drew a bunch of snowflakes in various places, stitching on the lines of the snowflakes three times with a metallic silver to make them stand out a bit.  I like it!!

Happy quilting,
Jessica

Comfort sewing

Often when I'm sad about something I will sew.  I have found that hand sewing is the best remedy for sorrow.  So yesterday that's what I did for hours and hours and hours.  I sat on the couch with my big blue crochet hook and worked on a blanket that I started a couple of weeks ago after my oldest daughter, Emily, taught me how to do a simple crochet stitch.  Its red.....red for Russia....that's where she flew off to yesterday to live.  Those Russians are going to love her!!!!

That's Emily on the right and Molly on the left.  Such sweet faces.

Back to crocheting.

Jessica