What up, party people?
Today’s tutorial is going to be fantastic.
We’ve got a super simple wonky firework quilt block for you..
Let’s get started.
That’s right, today’s tutorial is a really fun play on Jenny Doan’s Wonky Star blocks
by turning them into fireworks.
But check this out as you look at the quilt behind me.
It’s wonderful.
These are all Wilmington fabrics and I started with a five by five, actually I started with
two five by five packs of this pre cut print called In the Navy.
And then I also had strips of the red and white fabrics that are coordinates to match.
And what we’re going to do with this is we’re going to take these strips and we’re
going to cut them down into five inch squares to start with our piles like this, right?
You’re going to need about a yard in each of the red and the white to get started.
Add a little bit more for your binding as you see in the quilt and it’s the perfect
combination, like I said, for just about any kind of patriotic project we’re going to
do.
Now I’ve pre built all of my squares on my layout so follow me over to the design
wall if you will.
Now what you see here is I’ve got the squares of one of the firework blocks, all of these
nine squares, laid out already so you can kind of see.
But in the quilt one of the things I wanted to try to do was get that random firework
explosion effect.
But I don’t have my star blocks lined up.
You see how this row here carries on.
So first of all I want you to build your entire project on your design wall and then assemble
it in rows even though your eye is going to want to focus on the star.
Now in order to maximize my fabric what I started to do is I put all of my blue fabrics
down first, making sure that no blue fabric that has the same print is ever touching.
So it just gives a wonderful random look.
But then I began dropping down white and red.
And I should point out I’m making both combinations of stars either red centers or white centers
kind of thing.
But what I’m doing here is building a checkerboard of the red and white.
In the center I use one red, one white therefore I remove the blue when I start to place it
around the rest of the design area.
The rest of the eight squares here are going to be complemented with one of the blue squares.
So I have already started building those so they’re on the table.
Follow me back over towards the machine.
And we’re going to get ready to start building these blocks out.
Ok so I’m going to make an opposite one in color to the one you’ve already seen
on the wall.
So it starts by making this leg or the star portion of our wonky firework block.
So as I mentioned earlier I have one blue square and one of the red squares to start
with.
And I’m going to keep the red as the square.
It’s the legs of the firework, the blue never gets cut into.
So for this I need to go right sides together.
And what I’m going to do is I’m going to kind of set this bottom point somewhere
around the halfway mark on this bottom edge.
And then I”m going to make sure I have enough fabric to get up to the top.
And as I come over to the machine I have cotton thread in place.
But I actually don’t need my edge guide.
So I’m just going to roll that out of the way.
And now we’re going to be doing a quarter inch seam allowance or stitching top stitch
style so I’m basically running the edge of the red fabric right along the edge of
my foot.
Let’s put that back up so it’s not a problem.
And I am going to backstitch as well.
The blue fabric is going to act as the foundation for us.
So before I even go to the ironing station I’m going to open this up to make sure that
I’ve covered the blue area I’m trying to cover up.
Now I can safely press this to secure it.
And then watch this trick here.
There’s two different ways we can cut this.
What I want to do is I want to maximize the amount of red square that is leftover for
the next side.
So this line here when I cut this I have the smallest amount of scrap left.
If I were to cut this line first I’m making kind of an odd shape.
So do pay attention when you go to cut.
You’re going to cut your long side of the red making an extra nice piece leftover.
We’re going to finish this trim real quick while I’m here.
And I’m looking at the back side so I’m making sure I’m not cutting into the blue
square.
Flip that back over, that’s perfect.
Now I’m going to use that longer edge, the diagonal that was remaining.
And again right sides together.
And I’m going to lay this up.
I want to make sure that I have the tips or the red points coming down here to cross over.
And then I can adjust this side however I would need to work with what I have left.
If you’re nervous it may not fit you can always put your finger down here and fold
open and make sure you’re going to be close.
And anytime you’re not sure just cheat it down a little bit.
These are all meant to be wonky or random looking.
So there’s no wrong answer.
And I sew through.
Just like this.
I’m going to fold it open to double check.
Come to my ironing station.
Super, super simple and really fun to make.
I love making these quilts where I’m randomly handling each seam as I go.
Now as I go to trim this off again I”m maximizing what’s leftover because I need that little
teeny piece of fabric for my center block because I also make my center wonky.
So we’re going to do that next.
Here’s our one of our four star legs that we’re doing.
And I’m going to show you this right here.
This is basically the almost finished portion of my center.
Remember I said there’s no blue used in my center.
But I had a white base.
I’m matching the scraps that were left from my start legs.
So that piece that was just leftover I’m going to fit in here right sides together
and because I have a nice big chunk I can adjust it so it’s at a slight angle.
And that gives me that really fun wonky appearance when I’m done.
And again just stitching along here.
We’re going to press this before we trim it.
And for this block I’ll be trimming from the back as well all the way back down to
that white five inch square as I’m working.
And I think I’ve mentioned or I know that I actually hadn’t mentioned but I know that
I did it on purpose.
Put this lazy susan in place to make my sewing habits very nice and safe.
And just to point out when I brought this white square into camera today I already had
the other three legs on because I’ve already built up what we need basically for the rest
of this star.
So somewhere around here, there we go.
So that’s where those other four parts did come from.
I’ve already now constructed this.
So we’re almost there.
We just have one more construction to do.
And that’s going to be the firework burst for the corner blocks.
Those are going to look like this as they’re finished.
These ones are a bit more tricky so just go a little bit slower and let me show you how
to make them.
Now in that one the white actually is the foundation.
So the white piece or whatever is the burst piece so it would be the white or the red
is going to remain as the five inch square.
The blue gets cut on what we call the bias or diagonal or long across corner to corner
there.
And I’m going to use one piece on one side, one on the other.
So if you’re strip piecing or stacking a bunch of these up make sure you don’t mix
up your blue fabric so you can cut a bunch of these at once.
But make sure you sew the right ones back together.
For this make sure that your white is right sides up.
And my trick for this one is here I as get ready to stitch this on this is going to fit
on this side.
I’m going to start at the very tippy top of the peak.
And then I’m going to bring this over somewhere past the halfway mark on this edge.
So if this was roughly half this seam allowance is going to come here.
So I’m making a wider wedge.
Come over here, sew that on just like I did before.
And to double check as I open it up.
And one of the things that happened to me several times when I was working on my squares
is that I would come up with just a little corner that didn’t quite make it over there.
But what I want to point out is that little edge there is going to be well secured within
my quarter inch seam allowance so as long as it’s less than a quarter of the opposite
color poking out of that corner I”m not going to worry about it.
I check it before I cut it.
And if I am worried about it I deploy my seam ripper and I take care of business.
And I put it right back down because I need all of my blue squares to make the quilt that
you see behind me.
And that quilt back there is 41 by 41 inches.
I know I didn’t tell you that either yet today.
So we’re ready to put on our last piece.
This piece is going to fit in there like that but don’t forget to go right sides together.
Start up at your tippy tip.
And again align this so that it’s random.
But it’s going to come somewhere past that halfway mark.
This time I”m going to be sewing in the opposite direction but I’m still looking
at right sides together.
And here we go.
Double check.
That one worked very nicely.
So we’re going to press it.
And then for this block as it is I like to do all my trimming at the very end.
So I’m going to lay it down here like this.
And then I’m going to go ahead and use my efficient susan I’ve been told this is called
to rotate.
And trim.
And I’m looking just at the white fabric there to make sure that everything’s staying
nice and square.
But this gives me a really safe, easy and efficient way to get this all trimmed up.
So my other block is done.
And let me show you how to construct your wonky firework in case you hadn’t already
figured it out for yourself.
So again I like to start in my center there.
Then I’m going to put on my star legs like yay and like yay here.
And then those bursts come in here and it’s the little points or the tip of the wedge
that points back at the center.
So these would all go in here like that.
And then just a quick reminder please don’t stitch all of these blocks together yet.
I want you to take them back to your design wall and put them back in place.
That way I’m going to show you one more time as you follow me to the quilt here and
just to point out I’ve done my opposite colors.
So here’s one of the white centers.
Here’s one of the red centers.
Here’s the red center.
And one of the reasons I really, really want to make sure you’re putting them together
on the design wall first is so that the star blocks themselves are not in the same column
or same row completely.
Just to make for that wonderful random bursting effect I was going for.
The other little bit of fun is I’ve got a whole row of blue up here and down here
which gives that deep night sky where the fireworks would be exploding.
And just to polish it off of course I shipped it off to the MSQC and they did their awesome
machine quilting of stars just to put the whole theme together.
And you know me I love my theme based quilts here at Man Sewing.
So will you do me a favor in the comments below?
Let me know what your favorite holiday is and send me some of your favorite theme based
sewing and quilting ideas.
And we’ll get them taken care of for you right here at Man Sewing.
Thanks for being a Man Sewing fan.
It’s great to have you out there encouraging me to create fantastic new content.
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