Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And I’ve got a great project for you today. This is going to change the way you look at a 2 ½ inch strip. Because we’re going to turn this into a star block. And every quilter loves stars. So let’s take a look at this quilt behind us. Isn’t this gorgeous? We’ve got four stars across and five stars down. So we’re making 20 stars. And I mean it’s just a great little quilt. So to make this quilt what you’re going to need is 22 2 ½ inch strips. And we have used Artisan Batik Prisma-Dyes by Lund Studios for Robert Kaufman. And you can see behind me it is just a gorgeous line. You’re also going to need some background fabric. You’re going to need about 3 ¼ yards of fabric. And then for your little binding out here, you’re just going to need ¾ of a yard of whatever color you decide to use. And we’ve obviously used red. And it just kind of frames the whole thing and pops it. So I can hardly wait to show you how to make this because I love that we can take this little strip and turn it into a whole big block.

So to make this quilt what you’re going to do is you’re going to take your 2 ½ inch strip, and on batik fabrics, a lot of times you can’t see that selvedge, you know it just doesn’t show up like it does on the other fabrics. But most quilters, we automatically trim off that, that selvedge. So you’re going to go ahead and do that. My strip is, is folded in half. And so then what you’re going to do is you’re going to cut, you’re going to cut four 4 inch strips and four 6 inch strips. So we’re going to take and cut our four right here. So there’s two and here’s two. So we have four 4 inch strips. And then we’re going to have two, or four 6 inch strips. Woo! Almost said the wrong thing there. So here’s six inches right here. One, two and then we’re going to cut two more six inch strips. And then with this little leftover piece right here you’re going to cut this into a 2 ½ inch square. So you’re going to want to open that up and go ahead and cut a little 2 ½ inch square. You’ll want to save this, set this aside because this goes right here. This is what these little 2 ½ inch squares are for.

Alright so then, now you’re going to cut your background fabric. You’re going to cut a four inch strip. And out of that four inch strip you’re going to go ahead and cut four inch background squares. So we’ve got some four inchers here. We’re just going to cut those. Just like that. And you’ll cut, you’ll need four of these for your block. For each block that you make you’ll need four of those. And, and I’m talking about blocks here. So when I talk about four 6 inch pieces and four 4 inch pieces, that’s what you need for this block. So now we have four background squares. And then you’re also going to need eight 2 ½ inch squares. And I have a couple of pieces here I’m just going to trim. Trim a couple of these into 2 ½ inch squares, eight of them. So there’s two, four, six, and eight. There we go. So again just on a recap. You’re going to need four 4 inch squares cut from your 2 ½ inch strips, I mean rectangles. And four 6 inch rectangles cut from your strip.  And also for that square you’re going to need four 4 inch blocks. Here’s one, two, three, four. And then you’re going to need eight 2 ½ inch squares right here. There’s our eight right here. So that’s, that’s where each block you do, that’s what you’re going to need. So let me show you how to put this together.

The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to dogear all the corners of our blocks. That means we’re going to take this 2 ½ inch square and we’re going to fold it on the diagonal. And we’re going to press a sew line. You can finger press that. You can press it with the iron or you can draw the line yourself. Now what we have to remember on this when we do this is we, we are going to lay this on the top of our strip like this. And we’re going to sew on the line. Trim this part off and fold this back. This is what I call dogearing a square. So again we’re just going to put our square on top, sew on the line. Trim that outside part off and fold this back. Now the only thing you have to remember about this is that all your longs, all your six inch strips have to go the same direction. It doesn’t matter which direction. They just all have to go this same direction. So this is what I’m talking about right here. I just want to make sure you get this. So we’re going, we’re sewing them on and they’re all going to go this way. Now with our little four inch blocks we’re going to dogear them as well. But they have to be opposite. So just make sure they’re going opposite. It doesn’t matter which way they go. It matters that they’re opposite. So let’s go ahead and sew some of our blocks onto our strips. And I always do one set of strips at a time.

So right now I’m going to do our six inch strips. And I’m going to make sure that they’re all going the same direction. And I’m going to sew on my line from, from the top left to the bottom right. Just like that. I’ve got some stringage right here. There we go. Just a little twist up. And we’re going to do that to all four of these. So again we’re just going to lay our square on here and we’re going to sew from corner to corner, from the top left to the bottom right. So once you do this. You’re going to sew right on that line. You’re going to come over here and you’re going to trim this off, just like this. Just trim it about a quarter of an inch. And then you’re going to press this back just like this. Now you’re going to do this to all four of your pieces. And I generally do mine one after the other after the other, to make sure that I’m going the same direction. So I’ll do all of these. Then you’re ready to do your small ones. So I want to put this over here so you can see the difference. And you just need to make sure that they’re opposite. So this one, see how this one goes this way, this one I’m going to put on so it goes the opposite way, just like that. That’s how you want them to look. You want them to be opposite, going the opposite directions. So this one I’m actually going to sew from the top right to the bottom, or from, ya from the top right to the bottom left. I almost got my lefts and rights mixed up. And you’re going to do this to all four of your pieces as well. Alright. So then once you get all your little ones done you’re going to again trim this off. And then just iron this back. Right here, we’re just going to gently press that back. And then all four of your small strips should look like this. And all four of your tall ones should look like this.

So I have some of those done already over here. And what we’re going to do, I”m going to show you how to build this block. So we’re going to take our four inch square. And we are going to put our, our red right up to it. And we’re going to put it so the color joins the background. Just like that. We’re going to take this and sew this on. So again lay your color to the background and sew it down, like this. A quarter of an inch. So your small strip goes to the four inch square. And we’re going to press that open. And then we’re ready to bring in our tall guy. So our tall guy is going to come in and he’s going to go this way. So you always sew your color to your background and your color to your background. So we’re going to put him over here. And sew our color to the background. Just like that. Alrighty. So you’re going to make four of those. Four of those that look just like this. And then guess what happens? Watch this. You, when you start to put those four together, look what you get. And how easy is that?

So now you just put this together like a four patch. You’re going to sew these two and these two. And then you’re going to sew those two half units together. And you’ve got a star block from a 2 ½ inch strip. There we go. And one more piece. I love this block. I love that there’s very little waste. And, and that you can do something unexpected from a pre cut, you know, you weren’t expecting to get a star out of this. And so I, I like that. I like it when that happens. Now when you sew this middle together you want to try and match a little bit your, where your star points come together. So just see if they make, those kind of line up. And then your two middle seams you will also want to line those up. It’s going to be the same color so it’s alright if you’re a tiny off but you really want to try and get them as close together as you can. And I can do that, I can feel that nesting with my fingers. If you can’t you’ll want to pin it. Alright so now we have, look at that. So let’s iron it. Let’s press it. And I like to press from the top, make sure I don’t have any folds. And then I can flip it over and make sure my seams go the way I want them to. Or whatever way they want to is fine with me as well. Alrighty.

So here’s our star block. Isn’t that great? Well let me see, just a minute. This is a little bit wonky. So let me straighten that out. Sometimes you get it over there in front of the camera and you go, Whoa! That wasn’t exactly what I was thinking of. Alright, so there we go. Now it’s nice and straight and you’re ready to build your quilt. Let’s look at our quilt behind us for, for a hint on that. Right here between every star we have a sashing piece. Your sashing piece should measure the size of your block. So you’re going to measure your block right here and then you’re going to take a sashing piece and put in between every star. Just like this. And so as we add more stars here, there will be another one. And you’ll put a sashing piece like this. And another star. And you’ll do that four across. So here’s our four, or here’s three. And then you’re going to add, and you would do four because we’ve got four up here. Well I guess I can put four in, I just don’t, I just know don’t have much room up here. There we go.

Alright now the next piece you’re going to put in, once you get your star rows together, you’re going to add this sashing strip. So your sashing strip is made up of one sashing piece that is the same size as your block again. So it’s this same size. And one 2 ½ inch block. And you’re going to sew those together. And they’re going to do this. So it’s right here. So here’s your, here’s your row of stars with your sashing in between. Here’s your row of your sashing row that has your little cornerstones in it. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense to everybody. And you’re going to do four across, five down.

Now we just added a little three inch border out here of the, the background material and that’s included in the yardage that I said to you in the beginning. And when you’re done you’re going to get a quilt that is 59 by 72. So it’s a good size quilt. Really fun. Great idea to do with a 2 ½ inch strip which I love. One of the fun things for us that we’re trying in this also is this is going to be available as a kit. Which I think is really fun. This is the first time we’ve done anything like that. We’re calling it Autumn Stars. So we hope you enjoy it and we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on Autumn Stars from the MSQC.