 Hello again, I hope you are having a happy, healthy start to the month of February. This week I am announcing the second mystery star block in my Facebook Block of The Month group, and I thought it would be great to share the tutorial with my blog readers as well! This month's block is called the Friendship Star. This is a fairly easy beginner block and will give you good practice in making half-square triangles. Variations of this block are the Ribbon Quilt Block, the Nine Patch Star, and the Water Wheel Block. Are you ready? Let's begin! Pieces you will need for one 12" block...  The above image shows the pieces you will need for one 12" block. The 4 1/2" piece will be placed in the middle of the block. The 5" pieces will be made into half square triangles which will be arranged around the middle piece. Making the Half-Square Triangles (HST's)...  1. The first step in making half-square triangles (HST for short) is to draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of each 5" background square. In my block the background squares are white. 2. Second, place the background squares and the 5" patterned squares with right sides together. This will give you four sets of squares.  3. Sew 1/4" seam allowance on both sides of the diagonal line for each 5" background square.  These squares can be chain pieced for quicker assembly. Click the link HERE for an easy tutorial on Chain Piecing.  4. Carefully cut the sewn squares in half on the diagonal pencil line. This will give you two HST's as shown above.  You will have eight HST's in all after cutting the four squares. Next, follow the directions below to prepare the squares for sewing them into the Friendship Star block.  I like to use a nice steamy iron to press my HST's open. A little word of caution here...press gently and take care not to over-do it, or you could warp the shape of your HST's. Wasn't that easy? Now, you're ready for the next step!  Each HST should turn out to be 4 1/2" square.  5. Finally, we are ready to trim and tidy up our HST's using a square ruler. Click HERE to read my tutorial How to Trim Half-Square Triangles in Three Easy Steps. Please don't skip this step...it really makes a difference in how your final block will turn out! Assembling the Friendship Star Block...  We're almost finished! You're doing great! Now it's time to lay out the squares into our block pattern as shown above using the 4 1/2" square for the middle piece of the block.  Sew the top, middle, and bottom rows as shown above. Again, we are using a 1/4" seam allowance throughout the entire process.  Using a steam iron, press the seams of the top and bottom rows outward and the seams of the middle row inward...this will help the seams lay flat when the rows are sewn together.  Pin the top and middle rows together (as seen above) taking care to nest the seams in opposite directions as shown below.  Sew a 1/4" seam.  Pin the remaining row and sew in the same manner as above; press the seams from the back first and then press the front. In this case, you may prefer to press the seams open rather than to the side. This will also help the block to lay flat. Lastly, trim the finished block to 12" if necessary using a 12" square ruler. Click HERE to see a wonderful tutorial on How to Square up a Quilt Block from the Crafty Mummy!  Ta-dah! Give yourself a round of applause for completing your beautiful Friendship Star block. I'm so proud of you! Remember, the time you invest in quilting today will find you that much more of an expert at it tomorrow! !Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you've enjoyed my tutorial on this beginner-friendly quilt block. I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to leave a comment or question, and I'll promptly respond. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Happy quilting! 
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 This block is the first in the 2018 Block of the Month Mystery Star Quilt I am doing over on my Facebook page. I thought it would be great to do a tutorial for each month's block so that my blog readers could benefit as well. Please click HERE to visit my Facebook page. It's not too late to request a spot in my Block of the Month group...we would love to have you join the fun! The Evening Star block is actually a Sawtooth Star variation, and is an easy choice for beginners. It is such a wonderfully classic block, and would be lovely as the theme of a quilt. Since this block goes together quickly, it would be a great choice for a weekend baby quilt! There are so many ways to color your Evening Star... I think you'll have fun working with this pattern. Let's get started!  The above image shows the pieces you will need for one 12" block. All seams are sewn with a 1/4" seam allowance. To make multiple blocks for an entire quilt, simply multiply the pieces by the number of blocks you plan to make in all. For example, if I wanted to make a small quilt with a 3 x 3 block setting (9 blocks in all), I would need the number of pieces per block times nine.  Each block has three main units: a middle unit, four Flying Geese units, and four corner units. Please see the detailed instructions below for sewing the Flying Geese units.  Step 1 -To begin: mark the back of each 3 1/2" square (unit D) with a diagonal line as shown above. I used a Frixion pen to mark my units because the ink will disappear when pressed with a hot steam iron.  Step 2 - Place the first square unit onto the rectangle unit with the right sides together. Notice the placement of the diagonal line in the image above.  Step 3 - Sew from corner to corner on the drawn diagonal line. Use an anchor piece to keep the machine from bunching up at the tip of your corner. It would be good to note here that if you sew slightly to outside of the diagonal line, then your corner will come up short. It's important to sew on the line and not to the outside. Chain stitching works wonderfully for this step if you are planning to sew multiple Flying Geese units.  Step 4 - First, press the stitching in order to set the seam, then trim the corner 1/4" away from the stitching line; finally, press the corner open.  Step 5 - As before, stitch the square unit onto the rectangle with right sides together on the diagonal line. The second block with slightly overlap the first.  Step 6: Set the seam with an iron, trim the second corner 1/4" inch away from the stitching line, and press open. Voila! Now you have a beautiful Flying Geese unit! Now make 4 total units.  Now to assemble and finish the block...  Assemble the top and middle rows by sewing a Flying Geese unit to the corner units of the top and bottom rows; sew a Flying Geese unit to the left and right sides of the middle unit. See diagram above.  Using your iron (I like to use steam), set your seams and press. It is important, for the next step, that you press the outer and middle rows in opposite directions. (See the above image).  Next, pin and sew the top and bottom rows to the middle. Be sure to nest your seams together with the dark seams going in opposite directions. This will give you a nice flat block without bumps. It will also make the whole project easier to machine quilt.  Your block should look like this from the back.  Lastly, trim your block to 12" using a square ruler. All finished! Wasn't that fun and easy? I hope you will try this block using your favorite fabric. I would love to hear from you, so please leave me a question or comment below. Remember, the time you invest in sewing today will find you that much more of an expert at sewing tomorrow!  Click the banner above to join my 2018 Mystery Star Block of the Month group on Facebook!  |
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