Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And I’ve got a great project for you today. Take a look at this quilt behind me. Now this quilt is really fun and it looks like a bit of work. But it’s very simple in its construction. And I’ll show you how. But the other thing I love about this is that these squares are flannel and these are not which is really cool for people who love that texture. So to make this quilt what you’re going to need is two packs of five inch squares. And we have used Wooley’s Heritage Flannel by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood Studios. You’re going to need some of this background fabric and you’re going to need 2 ¾ yards of that. It takes care of all these squares and all your sashings as well. For your border out here it’s a nice big seven inch border. And you’re going to need, for that seven inch border, you’re going to need 1 ¾ yards. On the backing you’re going to need 5 ¾ yards. And this backing is also flannel. It’s so nice to sit under a cozy flannel quilt. But I want you to notice this stitching on the back because we did it with a pine tree motif and it just, I love how it shows up on flannel. And just makes it really, really fun.

So this, it’s pretty simple to make. It’s got a nine patch block right here. And so you can see we have our flannels in the corners. So this is the block we’re going to concentrate on right here, this little block. And it is made by taking a four inch strip. We’re going to strip cut these, a four inch strip and sewing it to a 1 ½ inch off colored strip or a different colored strip than your one. Whatever your pop color wants to be. Which reminds me we’re probably going to need some strips for that, ½ a yard of that black will take care of all these little strips you use for your block. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to put these together like this. And we’re just going to go to the sewing machine and sew these together right down the side. So I’m going to start from this end. I like to keep my fabric off to the side. And I’m going to line it up like that and set it under my presser foot and I’m just going to sew along. And we’re going to do this at a quarter of an inch and we’re going to sew right down here. Keep it lined up so you can just sail. I stop and reposition about every ten inches or so. Once you put these two measurements together this strip should measure five inches. So we’ll have to check that to be sure because our pre cuts are five inches and we want those to be able to line up. Alright I’m making the, I’m ironing to the dark side so that my little seam allowance goes up to the dark. So I’m going to flip that over and take a look at that and make sure that this seam allowance is all going, yep, to the dark. So what I like to do is I like to fold my strip in half. This becomes a strip set for us. And I’m going to fold it in half so I can cut two blocks at a time. And I’m going to slide it here so that my, let me move these out of the way so I don’t cut the wrong things. And I can move this out of the way too. There we go. Alright so I’m going to cut off my selvedge edges. And you can see that they’re at different places so basically I’m just cleaning up this edge, straightening it up like this. 

Alright now what I want to do is I want to look and I want to see, make sure this is five inches. And that is five inches on the nose. So now what I’m going to do because my ruler is also five inches wide, I can just lay this on here, match it up to the edge and cut these blocks out like this. And we’ll cut a few of these. So you’re going to need four of these for each block and what we’re going to do now is we get to start building our block. 

So we’ve got four of our gray flannels right here. And we’re going to put them out here like this. Basically we’re building a nine patch block. These blocks then go in between the nine patches like this. And you put your little strip to the outside. But for me this is one of those fun things to think about. It’s like, what happens if I turn it in. What happens if, you know, I love the what happens if factor. So here we are with our blocks. And then this one. And you can see that we’re left with a hole in the middle. And you are going to cut a five inch square from your background fabric. Your background fabric includes this five inch square. And we’re going to plop that right in the middle just like that. Now what we want to do is we want to sew this together like we would a nine patch in rows of three. So I’m just going to pick these up like this. I’m going to, this is a, this is a quick way to do this. Let me get all the little threads off of there. And we’re going to lay this like this. Just like this I’m going to lay them over on each other like this. So when I sit down at my sewing machine then I’m just going to pick up this one and I’m going to sew a quarter of an inch down the side. And then I’m going to add this one in, again staying at my quarter of an inch and then I’m going to pull this one in the bottom right here. Now I’m going to cut my thread and I’m going to leave these together and I’m going to start from the bottom up. So now I’m just going to add this one on here like this. This is, when you get used to piecing, this will speed you up so much. Alright so on this one you’ll know that you need this black one and the black part has to be to the outside. So we sew that one on. And line it up. And then this one over here. Again we have our flannel in the corner. Alright. 

Now we don’t cut these threads because these are just going to go together just like this in little rows. So now we can just fold this on top of here and sew that down. Now what I do is I get it, I put a few anchoring stitches in right at the beginning like this. And then I’m going to come back here and I’m going to make sure that my two seams line up at those first two squares. And then you can just sew to that part. So we’re sewing there. And then these two, we’re doing the same thing. I stopped right there and I make sure the next two line up. And I hold my fingers on there to make sure there’s no, no gap in between. Alright so now this is our last little row over here like this. And again I sew a few, make sure that’s lined up. You can feel that with your fingers that there’s no fabric in between. So do that. You can sew right to there. And then you come down and line it up at the next. Alright and our block is done. It’s all together and it’s perfect. Let’s iron it. I actually like to sew a nine patch before I iron so I can make the seams go the way I want. And I can see through here that this one is turning a little bit. So I’m going to press that over. Make sure that lays right. Oh this is a little trick you guys, you’re going to want to know this. So this seam right here, take a look at this seam right here. It’s going one way sewn this way and one way sewn that way so it’s got a twist in it. And let me show you what I do with that. I look at the way this one is right here. And it’s laying to the out so I’m going to make this one go to the out. So I’m just going to clip it and press this out so that it all lays the same way but we don’t have to worry about this little edge right there. And it’s going to lay down, that seam will then lay down nice and flat. So that’s just a little trick that I do. And just be sure you don’t cut through that stitch. So then you have this block finished. And let me show you how it goes into the quilt.

So here’s our block right here. And now you can see we have sashing all the way around it. So we’ll do our blocks together like this and we’ll put a block and a sash, block and a sash, block and a sash. Then this, this sashing will come in as one piece and I’ll show you how to do that. So we have this block here and we have this sashing strip right here. So our sashing strips are going to be cut from a 2 ½ inch strip of fabric that you’ll also cut from your background fabric. And what you’re going to do, your sideways strips, it’s going to measure the size of your block. So this block is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen inches. And I’m just going to cut 14 inch strips here. And I’m going to leave them stacked a little bit. So to make this easier I’m just going to line it up with my block and do that. 

So when you’re ready to put your quilt together, what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our blocks and we’re going to put a sashing strip in between like this. So here’s our other block right here. And you’re just going to sew these together like this. There’s no, no cornerstones or anything come in yet, it’s just sewing these two blocks to the sashing strip. Then when you’re ready to put in the sashing strip that goes in between the rows, it’s going to come in like this. And see this little 2 ½? Now this little 2 ½ inch block right here we got from our border. And we used the same as our border fabric. But if you want to use a different color you’re going to need a ¼ of a yard for that. And that just, you know, you can use whatever you want in the middle. It’s just whatever, however you like, whatever look you like, whatever fabric you like. It’s fun to play with different fabrics in different quilts. 

So anyway, basically what we’re going to do is we’re going to sew, let’s look at this. We’ve got one, two, three, four, blocks together and we’ve got one, two, three, four, five, rows. And so here’s that little sashing strip that I’m talking about. And we went ahead and sashed the beginning and the end of both blocks with these sashing strips so that it would form a border at the end of it. And so I think it looks really cool. It comes together so quick and easy. I think you’ll really enjoy making this. And one of the cool things to me is it really only took two packs of five inch squares. So we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Four Square quilt from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.