Hi, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. Today is Halloween and I have a really
fun fall project for you that will carry you all the way through the holidays. So, take
a look at this darling little runner behind me. Isn’t this so cute? So, to make this
quilt, what you are going to need is the half-hexi ruler, that makes the bottom and the top of
the pumpkin, and you are just going to need some scraps because it’s just three pumpkins.
Now, if you are like me and you have a really big table, you can make it as long as you
want, but I am going to show you how to make that pumpkin block.
So, what you are going to do first off is, you have to cut your hexagons. So, we have
got some scraps here. I love scrappy projects because we all have a few scraps. So, we have
got some scraps here, and I am going to cut my half hexagon out of this scrap, and you
want to get all of these pieces ready to go so that, so that the assembly just goes together
like a dream. There we go, one more cut.
Alright, so now I have a half hexagon and we want to mix them up, so I went ahead and
cut two because I will use that for another pumpkin and I have one cut over here. The
next thing you are going to do is, you’re going to get your fabric, you know, a coordinating
fabric, and you are going to cut a two and a half inch strip and that is going to go
in the center. And then we need to cut the little pieces for the sides. I decided instead
of the black this time to try the gray. And so, what I did was, I know that when I make
this that this angle, right here, this angle is the angle that we need for the side pieces
to make this a block. Everything kind of has to go into a block shape in order for it to
fit nicely with each other and so I want that angle but I didn’t want the whole space
of a whole pumpkin, I wanted them just to, just to jut up against each other, just like
this, and so what I, what I needed to do was figure that out. So, here is what I did: I
took my half-hexi and I laid it along the edge of my fabric, actually I am going to
cut, trim this off right here. So, let’s trim this off. A lot of these orange fabrics
are from the Patrick Losey Basic Patrick Line and they are just cute, cute little fabrics.
Alright, so what I did here is, I took the point, let me scoot this out of the way, make
sure you can see this, so I took the point of my half-hexi and I laid it over here and
I made sure that right up here, at the top, there was about a little more than a half,
a half inch and, you know, like, I just lined that up straight so if your fabric is straight
on your mat, you can see your half inch is the same and, really, you can eyeball this
because we are going to trim the block down. So then we are going to go ahead and cut over
here. I am going to flip this around so it makes it easier for me to cut. So, I have
got my half inch lined up over here and I am just going to trim here, trim there, make
sure I am trimmed across here, and these are going to be my side pieces for my pumpkin.
So, I am going to need two for each pumpkin. Sometimes I forget that if you put it right
at the other cut, you have one less cut to make.
Alright. So now I have this little side piece and this little side piece is going to border
the sides of my pumpkin. This is the first part that you want to do. So you want to take
these and you want to line them up, like this, and if you have your fabrics folded so that
they’re wrong sides together or right sides together, then you will get one going each
direction, which is what we need. And here is my other one and we are going to lay him
out as well. And then we are going to head to the sewing machine and sew these together.
So, when I go to sew these together, you are just going to lay these right on the edge
and just stitch them down. I mean, it’s easy as that. So, let’s go do that. Alright,
here we are. There we go. So, a few anchoring stitches, make sure you are still lined up,
and you can sail down the side. And we will do the other side, and then I am going to
grab that other one and do it to.
Alright, so I have got both sides of my pumpkin done here and we are going to come over here
and iron these, so I will just press those back and this one also. Alright, so now we
have our little half-hexi and you can see this one is a little off right here. This
is not going to matter because we are going to square this up. So then what we are going
to do is, we are going to take another strip that is a little, you know, a little bit different,
because we want them all different fabrics. I mean, you can match if you want to. And
we are going to lay this right down the middle, like this. So, I am going to put this right
sides together on this side and sew it down, to here, and then right sides on, and then
attach this one to the other side of the strip. So, we will do that. This goes together so
quick. Here we are. And I am just going to pull this out and open it up and attach the
other side right from here. Alright. Now we will head to the ironing machine and we will
iron these back, like this. I like to iron from the top, make sure I have no folds in
my fabric, and then I will flip this over and make sure my seams are going the right
direction.
Alright, so now what we are going to do is, we are going to square this up. And the first
part of that means trimming-- trimming this little flap off here. And, and our little
pumpkin block here is ready to go, but we need to make sure that when we set this together
that it’s not going to go, you know, that, that they are going to go right next to each
other. So what I am going to do is, I am going to measure out a quarter of an inch from the
sides and just trim a hair off of this to make sure it is, you know, when we put those
two pumpkins together we don’t want anything to show but those two pumpkins, so I just
kind of, and this is kind of a little bit of a guestimate on here, you know, you just
want to straighten that block up and make sure it’s straight. You can go along the
bottom here and straighten this up, and then you have your finished pumpkin block, just
like that. It goes together so cute.
So for this one, this little runner behind me, I made three of these--one, two, three.
I put a one and a half inch strip of border around the first part of the, around the pumpkins
here, just to square it up and stop that border. So for this gray and this strip you are going
to need about a quarter of a yard and then I added another border, three inch border
around there, and you will need a quarter of a yard for that because it just takes three
strips. The only other thing I did that is different is that I decided that I wanted
a few little stems and let me just show you how I did that. They can all be different
and they just have to look like a little pumpkin stem and so, really, I just free handed them
and I know that there are people who are like, “I can’t free hand!” but you really
can.
So, actually the first two I made, Natalie saw and was like, “No mom. Try again. It
looks kind of like a tree trunk.” So it’s skinny at the top , we go down to the bottom,
and then we just kind of go to the top again, like this, and you are just going to lay it
on there, like that. Now, for mine, you can put this on heat-and-bond and do all that
but, for mine, what I did was, I just used a little bit of a lapel stick and stuck it
onto the border, and then just zigzagged around it. Went together really easy and really cute.
So, this will take you all the way through the fall, but wait. I want to show you something
else. I saw this, when I saw this pumpkin go together, of course I saw ornaments as
well. So, take a look at this ornament. Isn’t this fun? Instead of a stem, I just did this
little ornament topper, right here, and a little hook with rickrack. I used half a yard
of rickrack and I even had some left, so it’s, you know, it doesn’t take very much to do
it and it goes together really cute. I love this fabric. This was from the television
show when I was a kid. It was like one of the first cartoons and it was the Rudolph
cartoon. It played every single Christmas. The fabric is from Quilting Treasures and
it is called “Rudolph: 50 Years and Still Counting”. So, it is just a really fun,
nostalgic look to it and I just love it. It reminds me of my Christmas when I was a child.
So, we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Half-hexi Ornament and Pumpkin Table Runner,
from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.