Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And I’ve got a fun project
for you today. Take a look at this quilt behind me. Isn’t this great? So a few years ago
I made a quilt called Katie’s Quilt. And it was done just a little differently. And
every once in a while I like to bring out those old quilts that I made and kind of just
redo them and give them a new twist to it. And so that’s what we’ve done here today.
So this is our block that we’re working on right here. It’s this great block. It’s
got four nine patches, our sashing rows are two strips and we’re snowballing those corners.
And when those sashing rows come together it forms this gorgeous star in the center.
So to make this quilt you’re going to need one roll of 2 ½ inch strips and we have used
Tonga Batiks Firewood by Timeless Treasures. You’re going to need a half a yard of two
different background strips. Your sashing is one yard and that includes the sashing
around the stars and the inner border. Your outer border is one yard of fabric and we
have used this lovely Firework right here and look at this backing. For the backing
you’re going to need four yards of vertical seams or two yards of 108 wide.
So this is the block we’re talking about today and it’s actually made up of three
different squares. There’s a nine patch, a sashing strip and a four patch. And so I’m
going to show you how to make all of those. We’re going to start with the nine patch.
Now when you get your roll like this you’ll notice there’s lots of blues, lots of red.
And I decided I wanted my reds to be in the outside corners of my nine patch like this.
And so when you make your strip sets they’re going to be red, blue, red. And I scrapped
mine up. So they’re all different. They all have, you know, different strips but they’re
always red on the outside. Then you need that one middle strip and so that’s a blue, red,
blue. And of course again, I just scrapped them all up. And so you’re going to get
those pieces. And once you get your strips formed like this you’re just going to go
ahead and you’re going to cut 2 ½ inch strips off of those. So I’m going to lay
these out here. And you’ll notice my ends right here, these are uneven. So I’m going
to trim those off right here like this. So just trim those off. So you have a nice straight
edge to work from. And then we’re going to cut these at 2 ½. One of the reasons I
love this little 2 ½ inch ruler is it’s just the whole thing. There’s no measuring,
you’re just going to lay that on there and it’s the whole thing like this. So these
blue strips are the strips that we need to go down the center of our nine patch. And
so I have some of those cut right here. And we’re going to go ahead and sew one of these
together. So when you lay it out you’re going to lay your reds on the outside like
this, just like this. And your blue strip goes in the middle. You’re going to make
all your nine patches that way. And the reason I did that is because when we put that sashing
strip together I made all the stars blue. So you can see right here. All the stars,
where all the stars come together all these little pieces are blue. And I didn’t want
them to have to blend in with the blue out here, I wanted them to pop against that red.
So let’s go ahead and sew this nine patch together. You’re going to need four nine
patches for each block. And so I’m going to lay this on here. Now what will help with
sewing these together is if you iron your red rows, the middle seam goes to the outside
and your blue one, the seam will go to the inside. And so they will nest up a little
better if you do that. And so I’m going to just lay mine together. And you can just
feel them nest. They go together so nice. And I’m just going to open this up. And
then remember that my red goes on the outside and I will put this one over here. Go ahead
and make sure my seams are lined up. And so this makes a cute little nine patch just like
this. And you’re going to need four of these. And I have one, two, three so let me quickly
sew one more together here. I’ve got our reds on the outside and our blue in the middle.
I’m just going to sew this down a quarter of an inch. Once you get your strip set sewn
together, your strip sets of three, this will just go together so quick. Alright so now
we’ve got the red on the outside. And I literally have to say that every time or I
will get them mixed up because I am a rote sewer. So I just get sewing along. And then
I’m not thinking and so I have those little mantras, and I’ll be like red to the outside,
red to the outside. And it just keeps me from having to rip. So we want to rip as little
as we can. And especially if you’re sewing with batiks. They don’t love ripping, you
know, they’re, they tend to be a little bit more sensitive. Alright so we’re going
to press these nice and flat. And these are going to form the corners of our block so
here’s our block right here. These are going to form the corners.
Now what we want to do is we want to do that sashing strip. Now in this particular roll
right here there were only a couple of white strips and they were the same. And so I opted
to get a half a yard of each one of these so that I could cut all my strips out of these
because I wanted something other than a solid color. You know, I wanted to use part of the
line. And so you’re going to sew those together like this, in two strips. And then we’re
going to cut these into 6 ½ inch segments because when you sew three 2 ½ inch strips
together it’s 6 ½ inches, should be 6 ½ inches. But actually what you can do is you
can measure your block and whatever your block comes to that’s the size of your strip length.
So mine actually does come to 6 ½ inches. So what we’re going to do is we’re going
to lay this out here. And we’re going to measure 6 ½ inches and we’re going to count
over, one, two, three, four, five, 6 ½. Scoot it a little bit and make sure that stays on
that line, move this out of the way. And then what we’re going to do is we’re just going
to trim these. And you will need four of these for each block. Now to make these work what
we did was we took blues. And our blues we used in the corners. So I think I have some
blues cut right here. And I’m going to put these on the corners of my sashing, all four
corners. And the middle part is going to cross over a little bit and so I’m going to do
this side and this side. I’m going to do opposite corners. And then we’ll come back
and do the other corners after we press them. So it’s going to look like this. We’re
going to sew diagonally corner to corner on both sides.
So we’ll put this down. I’m using the diagonal seam tape so I didn’t have to draw
the line or press the line. If you don’t have that just iron them in half, press that
line or draw the line and you’re going to sew right on the line across. I’m using
diagonal seam tape so I just line up my needle with the red line in the middle. Make sure
this is right on the corner. And then we’re going to sew straight across. Alright so now
what we’re going to do is we are going to trim these off and press them back and then
add the other two corners. So let’s just go ahead and press these back here and press
this back here. Alright so now we’re going to add these corners. And you can see that
my pieces are all scrappy. I really love things scrappy. And so I planned it that way. I just
cut up a bunch of different fabrics so they would all be scrappy. I love that scrappy
look. Alright so now, again I’m going straight across the block. And to be honest, once you’ve
done a few of these you’ll get so good at this. You’ll just be able to eyeball it.
You’ll just be able to zoom from one side to the other because you’ll have done it
so many times. Eight times four on each block. So again I’m just going to trim this off
right here. Trim this off. And then I’m going to press these out. Oops, I folded that
one a little bit. Make sure they’re laying nice and flat.
Alright so now we have our four patches, I mean our nine patches. And we have our sashing
blocks. So I’m going to lay this block out like this and these here and I have some more
sashing blocks right here, just like this. And these here. So now the last block that
we need to finish this quilt is a little four patch right here in the center. And those
little four patches are so easy to make. So what you can do is you can take two of your
blue strips and sew them together like this. And then just cut them in 2 ½ inch increments.
And you’ll get pieces like this. And then you’re just going to put those opposite
sides together like this and sew right down the side and that’s going to make a four
patch for you. They’re quick and easy to make. And this is the center of our block.
Alright so I am going to now iron this open. And then this goes in here like this. And
that blue brings all these blue legs together to form that star. You can see that star right
there in the middle. So let’s go ahead and sew this big block together. So I’m going
to sew, I’m going to turn all these over to the middle like this and like this and
I’m going to sew all the way down this one side. And just make sure they line up. They
should match perfectly because they’re all 6 ½. And I’m going to leave my thread in
between and not clip it because that will keep my whole row straight. So now I’m sewing
my sashing block onto my four patch. And then this is the nine patch onto the sashing block.
Alright and now because these blocks are identical I can actually flip this over the other way
and I can just add my block because I know it’s still a nine patch in the corner, it’s
still going to be that sashing block in the middle and this way it will keep them all
straight so that when you go to sew the block together it will all be connected. So here’s
this one and here’s our little sashing block. And here’s our top one. And then we just
have to sew these rows together. And you notice I don’t really have to pay attention to
two colors being next to each other or anything like that because they just, they all go and
I’m not putting reds with reds and blues with blues. I’m just kind of matching them
up like that. Alright so here’s our three. And we’re just going to fold this one onto
here and sew this part together. And then we’ll do the same thing on that bottom row.
And make sure these line up. There’s nothing to match up except where the blocks and the
sashing meet. That’s the only thing you have to worry about. You want to make sure
that those line up because everything else, this is a very forgiving block. And this is
one of those blocks that’s really quite easy but looks like you worked quite hard.
Alright and my last row here. We’re going to sew this down here, fold it over. And I
love, the little strings, for me, act as pins and keep that whole block all together for
me so that I know I’ve got all my right pieces in there. Alright make sure that one
lines up. Alright now let’s press this and see how we did. I’m going to move these
things out of the way. Lay this over here. And this looks pretty good. You know there’s
something really gratifying about making your corners lining up and pressing batiks, it
lays so nice and flat. I love to press batiks.
Alright so here’s our block right here. Now there is a lot going on with this block,
wouldn’t you say there’s a lot going on with this block. It’s pretty busy. And when
you put these together, because this is one of the things that I look at when I’m designing.
I will set my blocks together like this and I will see what secondary pattern appears.
Now what’s going to happen with this is that I’m going to end up with this nine,
four nine patches together right here in a big block. But I’m pretty sure I’m going
to lose my star but that’s not going to be what I notice. So what I decided to do
was sash in between every block and make every block its own unit so that it would stand
out and pop. And so we got some navy and we put it in between our blocks just like this.
So whatever size your block is, this is the size that you need for your sashing pieces.
Now let’s look at this quilt because this has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine blocks. And because we put this sashing in here it let’s each block just
be the Star, you know, be the star. It actually looks so cute together. I love how you can
see the quilting. We did the quilting in a cream color because we didn’t really want
it to show up on here. But it shows up then on the border and you see the stars and the
stripes and I believe that’s the name of the quilting pattern. And then also we’ve
got this cute border out here. And on the back, take a look how pretty this back is.
Isn’t that just gorgeous? And I love how the quilting actually really blends in with
the back. And so, you know, it doesn’t have to be the star on here. It steps back and
let’s this fabric just speak for itself. So this makes a quilt that is 65 square. So
it’s a great size for a picnic or whatever you want to use it for. And remember pre cuts
are so easy because if you want a bigger quilt you just buy an additional pre cut and that
makes it twice the size. So we’re calling this quilt the Star Sashed Nine Patch because
of its nine patches and its star sashing in the middle. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial
from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
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