Hi, everybody it’s Jenny from the MSQC. Today’s quilt is really fun. This is a take
on an old block called the Ribbon Star. And we just want to show you how to do it. It’s
really really so much easier than it looks. Let’s take a look at this quilt behind me.
So it’s beautiful isn’t it? I mean it’s just gorgeous. Looks like you did a lot of
work. Of course you know if I’m teaching it, it’s going to be easy. We’ve got four
blocks across and five blocks down. Makes a gorgeous quilt. This is going to give you
a quilt that is about 68” by 82” so it’s a pretty good sized quilt. To make this quilt
we used one roll of colored strips, printed strips. And that’s 40 of those. And we used
the Buggy Barn Basics for Henry Glass. And I just, I love this fabric. I mean this is,
this is just me. It’s homey, it’s warm. I love it. Then you’re also going to need
one roll, 40 strips, of background fabric. And you can use a roll of solids. We used
a roll of 2 ½ inch strips of solids. If you’re going to yardage, you’re going to need about
3 yards of that and you’ll cut those into strips. And it will be the same for the color.
That’s how much is in one of those roll ups is about 3 yards. So that gives you a
little bit of info on that. You’re also going to need a yard and a half for this outer
border out here. And it makes a cute little outer border. It’s probably about 5 ½ inches
and so it just ties it all together and looks good. So let me show you how to make this
because this is super, super fun.
So first you’re going to choose three strips that are have different colors. So I’m going
to go with some contrast here. And I’m going to go with this, these three, these three
strips right here. For my center block, this is the block we’re talking about right here.
Let me show you this block right here. This is the center block right here. We’re going
to sew it to a background square, build another side, so it’s a little bit like a log cabin.
And then build these sides as well. So what we’re going to do again is we’ve got our
three strips. We’re going to cut a 2 ½ inch square off of this one because that’s
going to be our center. So let’s go ahead and do that. And I, I kind of leave my strips
all, you know I just kind of randomly do it so I use my strip without cutting individual
pieces. I just use my strip. Now I have my background strip over here. And I cut a 2
½ inch square off of that. So we’re going to sew those together. Just like this. Quarter
of an inch over at the sewing machine. So let’s go ahead and do that. Alright. And
we’re going to press this open. This is one of those times where it’s really handy
to have a little ironing pad right next to you because you’re going to be doing a lot
of pressing. And when you have to walk over to the ironing board, you know, I mean, that
just takes more time. Of course it will keep you in shape. So whatever you want to do.
Anyway, I like to have a little ironing board right next to me.
So then I have my strip here. My long strip. I’m going to, my background strip. I’m
going to cut off this selvage right here and then I’m going to just put this on here
with my piece to the top. Now when I make this quilt I am an assembly line sewer so
I will do all of my middles at once, you know. I’ll go through and I will just cut some
random squares and I’ll do, I mean all of these little 2 ½ inch squares, I’ll do
all of them. So this whole strip will be lined with 2 ½, 2 ½, you know all the way down
this little unit right here. This whole strip will be, I’ll have as many as I can get
on there because I like to do that chain piecing. So I’m just going to sew this one on because
I just want to teach you how to make the block. Alright. Now you can rotary cut these apart,
you can scissor cut these apart. I’m just going to scissor cut this. And we’re going
to set our seam and press it back. So that’s the, that’s the one side of our block. Now
we’re going to add our strips from the other side.
And what I like to do is choose the piece that I want to be the star. The star is going
to be made by these two different colors like this. This is the, these are going to be the
stars so one half of it is going to be this side and one half of it is going to be the
other side. So what I’m going to do now is I’m going to take this and these pieces
that I’ve chained pieced, so I now have however many I did, and I’m going to do
the same thing I did. I’m going to chain piece these again. And I’m going to lay
these one after the other on here. And sew them down the side. And cut them apart. So
we’re going to put this one and, and I want to make sure you saw this, you’ve got to
keep them going the same direction so my little, my little star square here in the center is
always going to be at the top on my strip. So when I add the next one, I’m going to
add it looking just like that. Make sure my star square is right at the top. So we’re
going to go over here and sew this one on. And I hope this makes sense to you because
you’re going to be sewing, this will go really fast for you if you sew all your pieces
at one time rather than doing one block at a time. You’ll sew, you’ll sew four blocks
at a time. Alright, now we’re going to cut this apart. And again you can rotary cut or
scissor cut. So now I have this piece right here on here. We’re going to iron that back
real easy.
And then we’re going to add this to the side. So you’re going to be making four
of these for each block. So now again what I’m going to do is I’m going to put this
because I want this fabric on this side right here. So I”m going to put this this way.
So you can either put your strip on the top or you can put your, your piece on the top.
We’re going to go with the strip on the top and we’re going to sew down this side.
Alright. Let me iron this back for you.
Alright, so this is the block you’re going for. For each star, you’re going to make
four of these. Then before we put them together, we’re going to snowball these two corners
right here. Just these two corners. So I’ve got some more of my 2 ½ inch background blocks
right here. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to draw the line right here
or I like to just crease it. So you can finger press it like this. Where you just push your
fingers across and it makes a crease or you can iron that. Whichever one you’d like.
And you’re going to do two of these to each block. Just like this and we’ll put them
right sides down. One on each side. One here and one here. Alrighty. So let’s go to the
sewing machine and do that. Now you’re going to sew on that line. Right on it. I’m going
to flip this around and sew right on my other side. Making sure it’s still lined up on
the corner. Mine slipped a little bit, line it back up. And then we’re going to trim
this like this and iron those back.
Ok so now you’re going to put, make four of these. Now one of things I want to point
out. Let’s just recap for a minute what we did was we sewed a 2 ½ inch colored square
to another 2 ½, added our piece to the side. Then we add the small piece to one side, the
small colored piece. Then we add the large colored piece and then we snowball our two
corners. Now you’re going to make four of these. And I have four of these over here
done. One of the things I want you to remember is because one strip set has your long star
side on it and one has your short side on it, you’ll be able to swap those strips
to make another star because one of your strips you’re going to use less of than the other.
And you’ll be able to make that the other strip, the tall side. That sounded completely
confusing but I hope you understood what I meant. We’re only using, you know we’re
using small amounts in each one.
So when you go to put these stars together your white fabrics, your background fabrics
are going to go always to the outside. So then when you put them together like this,
you’re going to see your star appearing just like this. Isn’t that cool? So now
what we’re going to do is we’re going to put these together just like a four-patch.
We’re going to line these up like this and stitch them together. And we’re going to
do the same thing to this bottom row and I’m going to go ahead and bring that over with
me. Nice and flat. A good pressing is like a little miracle worker. So there it is, that’s
our finished block.
Now what we did on this quilt is we went ahead and sashed between the blocks. You can see
we have four stars here and we put this sashing row right in between. A little 2 ½ inch strip.
The 2 ½ inch strip of sashing is going to be exactly the same size as your block, like
that. So you measure your block, and don’t measure all of them. You want, you know if
they all a little different, you just decide on a size, measure that and put them up and
make your blocks match to that. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to go ahead and
put these together. And we’re going to make a row like this and then put our sashing strip
in here. So here’s another sashing strip in my pile somewhere. Well we’re just going
to pretend and stick this right there. I’ll just trim it off. There we go. So this how,
this is how you’re going to put your rows together like this. Now in between the rows,
you’re going to do the same sashing. So the same size as your, your strip but it’s
going to have a little 2 ½ inch square on it like this. So we’re going to, let’s
lay one of these in here like that. And we’re going to take a little 2 ½ inch square here.
Lay it in there. Now on the quilt behind me, you can see that I mixed those all up. Because
you’re dealing with strips you’re going to have different pieces leftover and I just
went ahead and cut a bunch of random 2 ½ inch pieces so that it had that scrappy look
to it. I also carried it out into that first border. You’ll notice. So we have again
our sashing strip, our cornerstone, sashing strip, cornerstone. Those are 2 ½ inch strips,
2 ½ inch blocks and once you get that all the way around it, you’re just going to
go ahead and put that five inch border on there. And I mean it just comes together so
nice. So I just have to tell you, I love this star. I think this is a fun star. It’s a
great way to make a star. Real easy way to make a star. And we hope you enjoyed this
tutorial on the Ribbon Star from the MSQC.