Hi, I'm Jenny, from the Missouri Star Quilt Company!
Today I'm going to show you two quick and easy ways to make the Magic Square.
This quilt behind me is a gorgeous quilt. Made using a fabric line from Benartex called
Lemon Tree. It just uses the three colors But the way all the colors play together and
all the different patterns, it just makes a really fun and interesting quilt.
So, let me show you what you're going to need to make this quilt. You're going to need a
Layer Cake. You're going to need a Jelly Roll. You're going to need your rotary cutter, and
your scissors, and your ruler. So, not to many supplies, just a few things, and let
me show you how to do this.
So, we're going to take our Layer Cake square, and because we know that a Layer Cake square
is 10”x 10”, we're going to cut two 10” pieces to sew on the sides. So, we've got
that done here, and you can already see these are sewn on. Then we're going to add our pieces
on the top and the bottom. So, let's go ahead and do that. I've already got mine cut out
here.
You may want to go ahead and measure your block so you know what size they are to cut
out those side strips. Then you're going to sew them ¼” down either side.
Hang on, I caught my tail on there. There we go. Now before I iron, I'm just going to
flip this around, and sew the strip on the other side, and then we'll iron all at once.
Alright, so now lets press these open. We're going to come over here, we're going to set
these seams. Then we're just going to roll them back. Now to make this block you're going
to need two of these. So, you'll need two of these framed blocks together. Then what
I'm going to do is I'm going to fold this one in half, just like this, and I'm going
to iron a crease down the middle. We want to make sure that we get it right on that
angle, and then come across here and you want this to be a pretty good crease that you can
see. You want to be able to see this crease when we sew it together.
OK, so I have another one here that I've already made, and what we're going to do is, we're
going to treat this like the original half square triangle. Where you put your two blocks
on top of each other like this, and you've pressed or drawn the line down the middle.
What we're going to do is we're going to put a couple of pins in this to anchor it.
There we are. Let me put that pin in there, that one's got a little bit of a bend to it,
but that's alright.
So, we're going to pin this down and then what we're going to do is, see this crease
right here? We're going to sew ¼” on either side. Just right down the sides like this.
Let's go ahead and do that, and this part, this is where the magic happens!
So, we lay our presser foot right on that fold,and we just sew down one side. Get all
the way down to the end, and we sew right off. Then we're just going to lift it up,
pull it around, and we're going to sew back down the other side on the other side of that
fold line. There we go.
So, now what we're going to do is we're going to come over here, and you can use a rotary
cutter or your scissors, and we're just going to cut on that fold line right down here.
There we go, and we're going to pull our pins out. Then we're going to open up these blocks,
and what you get is a block that's half one block and half the other. So, it makes this
great looking block like this with very little piecing. You never have to handle the little
pieces. So, that makes it fun! So let's iron these. You can get a good look at them.
This is a really, really fun way. It works with any size square. You just want to make
sure that you border your strips around the edge of your square. You know your squares
are the same size, so when you put them together, again, you go through and you iron that crease,
sew on either side of the crease, cut down the center, and you get these two great blocks.
Now there's another way to make these, that really works just as well. Let me show you
that. To make this block you're going to need a Turnover and a Jelly Roll. Sometimes these
Turnovers are fun. We always like new ideas for what to do with them.
So, basically we're going to make a block that looks like this. The Turnover is a little
bit smaller. So, it'll make a little bit smaller block. What I've done is I've opened up my
Turnovers and my strips. Here they are here. So, I've opened up my strips and what I've
done is I've cut my strips into 8” pieces and... Oh, I think these are... These are
10” pieces. So I cut my strips into 2 – 8” pieces and 2 – 10” pieces, because in
your turnovers you're going to get eighty squares in that little Turnover bundle.
So, then what we're going to do is we're going to take this Turnover and we're going to lay
the short one along the side like this. We're just going to match it up on the side and
we're going to sew right down that edge. Then we're going to press this open. Let me scoot
these over here. There we go. This is also a fun line by Benartex called, My True Love
Gave To Me, and then the reason you need this little tail down here is that, we're going
to cut along here and you've got to keep the angle going.
So, then we're going to get our long piece here and we're going to lay it, again, so,
that it comes up even with the top right here, and then all the way down this side and then
I'm going to flip this over and sew this way so that I can see where this piece ends. I
just keep that edge of the Turnover lined up with the strip, and I sew ¼”. Then we're
just going to, I'm going to clip these threads real quick here. Then we're going to press
that back.
When you pick out these fabrics you just want to make sure your fabrics are contrasting,
and to trim off this Turnover, what we're going to do is, We're going to use the Turnover
as our guide. So we're going to use that as our line. We're going to line up our ruler
on the edge of the turnover. See how this uses quite a bit of extra fabric when we come
down here from the Turnover line. So, that's why the 8” and 10” strips are necessary.
So, there's that one and we're going to come up here and line our ruler up using the turnover
as a guide, cut to the end. So, you end up with a block that looks like this. Then whats
fun, I have some others over here that are finished, is we'll go ahead and we'll put
two of these together and we'll pick your two different blocks to put together, and
we just lay them on each other like this and sew them right down the center. And that gives
you the Magic Square in a Square look also.
Alright let's go ahead and iron this open. I forgot to set that, let me see. Let's see
roll that back, and there you have this square. So let me lay a couple of these out so you
can see how this will look with this Christmasy fabric. It's just a quick idea, and this one
I sashed but you don't have to do that. You can do it how ever you want. Look how pretty
this is! There we go!
So, there are two quick and easy ways to make the magic square. We hope you enjoyed this
tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.