Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And today we are celebrating
a couple of things. One, is the color of the year. The color for this year, Kona color
for this year is Horizon. And we made this whole quilt out of that Horizon. You can see
it comes in lots of different cuts. We’ve got the yardage. We’ve got the layer cakes,
the charm packs and the roll ups. And so we’ve got all kinds of sizes for you to work with.
And it’s a beautiful color. You know sometimes we’re kind of a little bit like eww but
this one, we’re like Oooo we love this one. So this is the color of the year. And I happen
to really love two color quilts.
So this is a really old quilt pattern and it’s called Lady of the Lake. And the earliest
information we could find about it is 1810. So this is an old, old pattern. But of course
we’ve made it new and easy for you. It’s all half square triangles, two different sizes,
super easy. Let me show you how. So to make this quilt you’re going to need one packet
of ten inch solid squares of color and one packet of ten inch solid squares of background.
Your border is a 5 ½ inch border and you’re going to need 1 ¼ yards for that. Your backing
is 4 ½ yards of vertical seams or 2 ½ yards of 108 wide. The machine quilting on this
pattern is called Curling Waves. And we just think it fits it beautifully. So let me show
you how to make this and we have a new technique for you today.
But right now we’re going to start with our tried and true. And that is this two squares
right here. We’re going to take two squares of color just like this. And we are going
to sew all the way around the outside edge. Now we’ve done this a ton of times and it
makes this center triangle right here. So you’re going to need four of these for one
block. And so we’re going to do that right now. We’re going to go ahead and line up
our, I’ve already sewn, you can see. We’re going to line up our ruler corner to corner
and make two diagonal cuts like this. Alright there we go. Now we’re going to press these
open and we are going to square them to 5 ½. And so I’m going to press two of them
open because there’s lots of ways to square. You guys when you’re squaring a block what
you want to do is you want to find a tool that works for your brain because squaring,
it just feels like some really, you know, one of those things that feels hard but it’s
really not hard. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to iron two of these open.
I’m going to show you two ways to square a block. And both of them work well for my
brain.
So the first ruler I’m going to start with is a bloc loc ruler. It’s just a regular
square. Any square that has a diagonal line you can use for this method of squaring. This
one has a little shaved edge so it locks up tight to that seam which we like. But what
we’re going to do is we are going to put this one here and we’re going to pull it
back to 5 ½ right here. And that feels like we’re, you know, like we’re taking off
a lot but sometimes the sacrifice is worth it. So we are going to cut four of these at
5 ½ and I’m doing this with the bloc loc ruler on this set right here. And then these
other two I’m going to show you how to use the clearly perfect slotted trimmer. This
is the one that I happen to love. And we’re going to lay it on here. Now you can see on
my ruler right here that we have, this is the 5 ½ stitch line so I’m going to match
my stitch line to their stitch line right here. And if I can I’ll scoot this all the
way over to the side so I’m only making one cut just like that. And that is actually
how you square that with the clearly perfect. I love the clearly perfect slotted trimmer.
I think it’s quick and easy, makes sense to my brain. So we’re going to go ahead
again, you know, line it up with your line and then I slide it all the way over to one
side hoping I can get one cut. Now if this didn’t line up exactly out here, if my diagonal
cut had been off then I would just put it here and I would take a little bit off this
side like this. And I would come down here and take the rest off of here. You just want
to line your stitch line with their stitch line. Alright. So these are going to be pressed
open to the dark side. Whenever you’re using a white fabric, you always want to make sure
that you press to the dark side so that that seam is hidden and you don’t see it coming
through your white fabric. So we need four of these for one block.
Alright now what we’re going to do is we’re going to do the easy 16 which I have not done
before. But I think you guys are going to think this is really fun. So what we’re
going to do is we’re going to take our two squares and we’re going to draw a line vertically
and horizontally. So we’re going to lay our ruler on here. I’ll do this from these
two right here. I’ll grab two new squares. Let me grab that one. Oh they want to stick
together badly. Alright I’m going to grab two new squares. We’re going to lay them
on top of each other just like this. And we are going to draw a line vertically and horizontally.
Vertically and horizontally, just like this. Now the first thing we’re going to do is
we’re going to sew all the way around the outside, even though, you know, we’ve already
got those lines drawn inside. First sew all the way around the outside.
So I’m just going to put my presser foot on here and I’m going to sew all the way
around the outside, just like this. Alright. Now you’ve seen me do this a hundred times,
sew all the way around the outside. But now what we’re also going to do is we’re going
to come in and we’re going to sew on both sides of this line and both sides of this
line. And I have one here that’s already done so you can see right here I’ve drawn
my line and sewn on both sides of this one and both sides of this one. So the easiest
way to cut the easy 16 is to first cut on your drawn lines. So we’re going to do that
right now. So we’re going to cut on these lines like this. And then you can take each
little section and we’re going to cut each little section twice just like this. So line
it up corner to corner just like this. And if you put your square so that it’s pretty
much facing you, you know, even with you, you’ll be able to do it without rotating
it. So we’re just going to cut it corner to corner on both sides. And we’ll get four
from each one of these squares which means we’re going to get 16 which is like super
good news for people who love half square triangles like I do. It makes lots all at
once. Scoot this down so I don’t cut into those other little triangles over there. There
we go. And again one last one. And this makes it really easy because you’ve just cut them
in half and you’re cutting four sets of four from our little corners. There we are.
Now these are going to be squared to three inches. And so we’re just going to come
over here and I’m going to press a couple open. And we’re again going to show you
how to square. My first square is going to be with the bloc loc. And what I remember,
how I remember the bloc loc, how this works for me is that I always press to the dark
side. And so then when I put my ruler down I remember that this writing where it says
bloc loc, it goes on my background fabric, on my light fabric. Now see you lose very
little on this one. And so we’re just going to do that and this one right here, again,
I’m just going to lay mine on here. Now I’m going to slide this down so that the
three inch line is right on the outside edge and that means I just have this little bit
to square. Now if for some reason my block was kind of wonky on this side you could square
a little bit from each side doing the same thing. Alright. So once we get all those squared
and together we are ready to put together our block.
So let me show you how to make this block. This is the block we’re talking about right
here. And it is just a great easy block. But for those of us who have a little bit of an
angley challenged brain I have to say, I got to be good friends with my seam ripper a few
times on this. But once you get the hang of what’s happening you’re good to go. And
so what we’re going to do is we’re going to start with a 5 ½ inch half square triangle
in the center. All of our little squares are sewn together going the same direction. And
it’s like a little mantra, you know how I tell you I have mantras all the time. You
know, upper left, upper left, upper left. And so we’re going to sew the sides first
which is two of those right here. And you’re just going to make sure just like that. They
go together. And these over here are going to go just like this. And we’re going to
go to the sewing machine and sew those together. So I’m going to sew these two. And literally
there will be a diagram in the pattern and you will just want to, you will become good
friends with that diagram because you’ll just want to check it every time because it
just has to be just a certain way to make this work. So these two I now know, and by
the way when I sew I always, once I finish a block, that block stays right there so I
can make them all look like that one. Hopefully it’s right or otherwise I’m doing it wrong
all the day long. Alright so then I’m going to sew this to the edge of this block. And
so we’re going to sew the sides on first and I’m going to line those up. There’s
nothing to match on this part, no seams to line up. Then we’re going to sew our other
pieces on. And I’m going to fold these over and put them here like this. Alright, then
we’re going to add these to the other side. So just like this. Make sure, nope. Just like
this. Whew, we almost did that one wrong. So on this part it’s color to color and
white to white so that will help you remember that. Alright. Now I’m going to press this
nice and just go ahead and press it nice and flat from the top. Flip it over, make sure
your seams are going the way you want them to. And generally that’s the way they want
to in my book. They lay nicer if you just let them do what they want to do. Alright.
So once you get your block pressed nice and flat we’re going to take it back over here
and we’re going to use this block underneath to line it up and make sure we get it just
perfect. So our top row I’ve sewn four together and that’s going to go right here all the
color points to the upper left. On our bottom row it’s going to be the same. They’re
going to all point to the upper left but we’re going to put them in. And when you sew them
together you can sew two, two, two, then four, four, four. And make sure they’re all going
the same direction. Alright so let me sew this row together and then we’ll add our
top and bottom rows. Ok so I’ve lined this up here. You can see how easy it would be
to get this, you know, turned just a little bit. Alright there we go. I think that is
just right. We’re going to put that on here like this. And we’re going to sew that down.
Now this right here, you want to make sure that these first two seams line up. You have
a little seam right there and that’s one of those places, those anchoring places where
you make sure you keep things lined up nice and straight. So a few anchoring stitches
and then I’m going to go down here and come across. Now I’m going to go ahead and get
my next anchoring spot ready which is clear on the other side of the block, over here
on this side. Lay this center seam down and come across. Line up that corner. And then
we are going to add that top row here and it’s just going to go on here like this.
Right so then coming across here. Again I’m making sure that my side seams match up exactly.
And I’m nesting them so one seam goes one way, one seam goes the other. So our actual
stitch line lines up exactly right in the middle. Alright so let’s see how we did.
That looks pretty good. Let me press this.
So now what we’re going to do is we’re going to put this together in quadrants. And
the way I remember this, I have some blocks made over here so let me clean up a little
bit. I’ll put these right down here. Alright. So how we put these together was I paid attention
to this blue half square triangle right here, this side. And all my blues went into the
center like this. And so as we put them in all the blues came into the center like this.
And that’s how we got our big quadrant for our quilt. So once you have all your blues
pointing toward the center you are ready to sew your quadrant together. So we’re going
to go over to the sewing machine and we’re going to sew these top two. And now you’re
going to nest your seams at every little seam. Make sure one’s going one way and one is
going the other. And that will keep your block nice and square. And I just stop and line
up each junction before I get to it. And then I’m going to do the same with this so I’m
just going to fold this in half. I’m not taking this off or cutting it because it will
kind of act as a pin for me as I put the next one together because it will be attached by
some thread. And then we’re going to go ahead and nest our seam as we go along. So
now my thread is actually holding these two together. I’m going to be able to open it
up and just fold them right in half and sew right down the side. And that will make our
big quadrant. Alright now let’s press this open and I’ll show you how it works in the
quilt. One of my favorite things about two color quilts is that, well first of all they’re
beautiful. I love them. There are huge collections of just red and white quilts. There are huge
collections of blue and white quilts. But I also think it’s an awesome way to make
a quilt for, you know, if you have a college kid and they have school colors. This is a
great way to make a quilt. This quilt also looks like you worked super, super hard. Doesn’t
it? It looks like you made pineapple blocks or something. And yet all it is is these half
square triangles that just fit together so nicely.
Alright so let me show you how this fits in the quilt. Ok, so we have three and you can
see it goes right here. So this is how it fits right in the quilt. And we have one,
two, three across by three down. Now that takes 36 squares so you have just enough left
to make a pillow for your bed just like this.
So I really enjoyed making this quilt. And I love that we can bring an old classic and
make it new again. And now you know a whole new technique, the easy 16. And we hope you
enjoyed this tutorial on Lady of the Lake from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
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