Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And I’ve got a fun project for you today. This idea came to us straight from our cameraman. The last time we did a quilt using the drunkard’s path template, he said, what if? And I love the what if factor. So the little star added in the middle is the what if factor on this and it just comes together so cute. We’re calling this quilt, Wandering Star. And let me show you how to do it. So to make this quilt what you’re going to need is one packet of ten inch squares. And we have used this line by Jill Findley. It’s called It’s the Berries. It’s a gorgeous red and black line. And it’s made for Riley Blake. You’re also going to need a yard and a half of this accent fabric and this is what’s going to make our star. Your border out here, this is a 2 ½ inch strip and it’s a half yard of fabric. And your outer border, let’s see what size strip that is. It’s a six inch strip, nice big outer border. And you’re going to need a yard and a ¼ for that. Now our backing, we used this nice big floral on the back, so pretty. And you’re going to need 4 ¼ yards of that. This is going to make a quilt that is about 70 by 70 so it’s a nice square quilt and a lot of fun, lot of fun.

So let me show you, we’re going to start with the drunkard’s path block. And you’re going to choose two fabrics out of the pack that have contrast. So I’ve got a black and white one here and a red and white one. And I’m going to decide which side is going to have the little corner and which side is going to have this. So you’re going to get two blocks out of this. But I’m going to start by cutting my little corner out first. So this is the drunkard’s path template which you need to make this. And we’re going to start by cutting the little corner piece right here. Alright so now what we’re going to do just line up your rotary cutter right along the edge of that and you’re going to make a perfect little cut. And you’re going to have two of these. And so in one the red will be the corner and the other one, the black will be the corner. So now for the large part of the square we’re going to take our drunkard’s path template and we’re going to lay this on the 9 ½ inch line. And that is the first solid line on here. The other lines are seam allowance lines and so that’s our first little solid line. And actually for me to cut this lefthanded I’m going to need to turn this so I can cut it easier. We don’t want any rotary cutter accidents. Alright so the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to trim off this side right here. And I’m going to trim up this middle. Now this will just shave a tiny little bit off. That’s one of the things I love about this tool is it’s so little waste. Look at this. Look at that. Look at that tiny little piece. That was pretty cool, huh? Alright so then we’re just going to cut off this little edge right here. So this is all our waste. I love that. Alright.

So then we’re going to sew these together. Now the way I like to do it is I like to take these and make a little finger crease on my inside piece and a finger crease on my outside piece. I’m then going to put a little pin in there and match them up crease to crease. Get my little pin over here. And then what I’m going to do is I’m just bring this edge around here like this. Now you can pin this if you want. And if you’re just beginning, I would. I’m actually going to today. Alright there we go. Alright so now what I’m going to do is I”m going to slide this under the edge of my foot, a quarter of an inch. And I’m going to slowly start sewing because I’m going to bring my edges together as I sew along. So we’re going to sew right here. There we go. And I should not have sewed over that pin. That’s a bad idea, that can go wrong really fast. So don’t sew over the pin. Alright I’m going this way. Going to take my pin out and then we’re just going to keep sewing around this edge. And that was a little faster than I intended. And then we bring this up and it should match up pretty close to that edge and bring that over. That little edge is always kind of hard for me, that little last edge. But you get pretty good at it when you do it over and over and over. Alright.

So this is the block we’re looking for right here. And then what we’re going to do with this is we are now going to add the star to the corner. And that’s what makes this block different is adding that little star. So what I’m going to do is, this is my accent fabric right here. And I’m going to cut a 2 ½ inch strip off of here. And you can see, so when you, when you want to cut your fabric, when you have a lot of fabric to cut I’m not very good at the whole long ruler thing. And so what I like to do is I like to fold this, you’re going to keep this even with your selvedge edge, keep this even. When you keep all your edges even then when you cut your strip you won’t have any elbows. So I’m going to slide this in and I”m going to cut a 2 ½ inch strip. Now if you want you can cut these apart to use them for your stars. But I like to leave them long. And then I’m just going to take my corner, so it’s this opposite corner from your curve we’re going to add this star. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to, oop I better cut this selvedge edge off of here. I don’t want to mistakenly get that in. Alright what we’re going to do is we’re going to come in, we’re going to come in about two inches. We want to make sure that this covers that corner when we’re done. So we’re going to come about two inches and then we going to just gradually, you know, come off the edge. And so I’m going to go ahead and sew this on here a quarter of an inch, just like this. And then I’m going to press that back. So right here at the ironing board I’m going to go ahead and press this back like this. Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to use my square as the pattern. So this ten inch square then becomes my pattern. And I’m going to take my little ruler and I’m going to slice off this side right here. And you can do that from off the block or on the block. I better use my ruler. Be careful. There we go. Alright. And then depending upon the fabric you choose for your star, you want to look and see if your pattern shows underneath. If your pattern shows underneath then you’re going to want to peel this back and just trim off that corner because we don’t want that to show through. Now on some colors it wouldn’t show through. Because yellow is a lighter color and black is underneath that’s going to show through and we’re going to want to just trim that off. So now we have a block that’s still, because that edge we added, still remains ten inches and it stays square.

Our star piece we’re going to put on this other side right here. So it’s going to go this way. And we want to make sure, again, that we don’t, we don’t, that we have enough when we fold it back including our quarter of an inch so that it keeps the star. And I’m just going to sew this down now a quarter of an inch like this. And, the key is to make sure that the wide part stays at the top. Alright so now what I’m going to do is I’m going to press this back right here, making sure, you know, before I cut anything, that I’m covering the edge of my fabric. And I am. So now I’m just going to trim this up right here like this. And then I’ll trim off this little end right here. And again, you want to look again and see if you want to trim this off. And I think we better trim that off. Now it doesn’t hurt to leave it. If you can’t see through it, I don’t mind leaving it. I know that the quilt machine can go through many layers of fabrics as well as fingers and rulers and all kinds of things. So I don’t worry about layering up. But if I’m going to see my fabric underneath then I want to clean that up.

Alright so now what you’re going to do is do this to all your squares.And then when you’re ready to put them together you’re going to assemble them like this so they form a star. So I’m going to do two lights and two darks. And I have a red one here. I have several of these blocks made. Isn’t that the coolest thing? And so when you go to put these together you’re just going to lay them right sides together like this and sew them up. Now even though I guessed, I didn’t have an exact place where I came off, they’re going to look fine. Because the yellow, the continuity of the yellow will carry the pattern across. So we’re going to go ahead and sew these like this so that I can show you that point down there. Here let me iron this so you can see it real good. Alright, so see how this, on this one, it was a little shorter and this one is a little longer? Because the sizing, it just carries that point. It just makes that point look like it’s still a point.

So what you can do is you can put them together in stars which I did. I sewed four blocks together to make this star. Or you can put them together in rows like this. If you’re going to do stars, we have three by three on this quilt. And if you’re going to do rows you have one, two, three, four, five, six, by six. So it just makes a great quilt. It’s a lot of fun and I love the what happens if factor where you just tweak one little thing, add one little corner and you’ve got a star on a drunkard’s path so we’re calling it Wandering Star. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.