Hey everyHey everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And I’ve got a really fun project for you. Isn’t this quilt gorgeous? Let’s take a look at it. Isn’t this so fun? It’s based on an old quilt that we call the Crown Block. And here’s the little crown right here. See that. And I’m going to show you how to make this. Now this block is made up of several other blocks. And when you finish it it makes this giant 24 inch block. Isn’t that gorgeous?
So to make this quilt what you’re going to need is three packs of five inch squares. And we’ve used Retro Metro by Lynn Studios for Robert Kaufman. Great line. You’re also going to need three packs of white five inch squares to go along with that. You’re going to need two yards of this background fabric. That’s this gray right here. ¾ of a yard for your inner border and 1 ¾ yards for this outer border because that’s a 6 ½ inch strip. And this makes an 88 by 88 quilt. Your backing is going to be, it’s going to be 2 ¾ yards and it’s 108 wide so it’s a great big nice wide piece of backing that we’ve used on there. And it’s just beautiful on the back of the quilt. Let me show you how to do this because this is really made up of two separate blocks.
One block is this block right here. And one block is this block right here. Now in each of the blocks there’s half square triangles. And we’re going to make these with five inch squares. And we want to end up with a 4 ½ inch half square triangle. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to take two of our pieces and put them right sides together. I had to look on that batik to see the right sides but you know their so, batiks don’t, you can’t always tell the right from the wrong. So if you can’t tell it doesn’t really matter. Then what we’re going to do is put right sides together and we’re going to draw a line side to side like this. I mean diagonally corner to corner, not side to side, corner to corner. And then we’re going to sew a quarter of an inch on either side of this. So let’s do that. I need to line these up a little better. There we go. Alright I’m going to line up my presser foot right along that edge and just sew down this side. I’m going to whip this around and sew the other side. And then we’re just going to cut it in half. And that’s going to give us two 4 ½ inch half square triangles. There we go. Now when you go to iron these, here let me move my big block. When you go to iron these you’re going to want to put the dark on top. And you’re going to want to set the seam and then, and then just roll them back here like that.
Once you get your squares all ironed you’re ready to go with, we’re going to start with this block right here. This block right here is made of four half square triangles. And we’re going to sew those together to make that funny hourglass shape like that. You may need to square these. Square them if you do. If not you’re good to go. We’re going to put ours together like this. We’re going to put two together this way and then two together this way like this. And they’re going to go together, oops I have them sideways here. You sew them both like a flying geese and then you put them together this way. Whew that wasn’t quite as hard as I made it look. So let’s sew two of these sets together as a flying geese which means our color comes together. And we’re going to do that and we’re just going to chain piece them through the sewing machine. And I’m going to grab these before I come over and sew. And you’re going to need four of these blocks for each of the big blocks. So I’m going to sew down here and sew down here. And I don’t know if you can see this but seam got a little scarce down here at the end. And I’m just going to run over that again. I’m not going to pick it out. I’m just going to run over and make sure my edge stays a little bit better on that, that seam line. So see how you end up with two seam lines but it doesn’t matter because this outer one is what I’m looking for. So don’t, you know if you make one that’s too skinny, don’t bother picking it out just sew another seam because we want these to, we want these to end up the same size. That’s the goal. Alright here we go. Now I”m just pressing these open. And then we’re going to put these together matching the whites up here like this. Now here is a little tip when you don’t want to lose the point, like when you’re sewing the flying geese or something like this and you don’t want to lose the point, I’m going to mark this with my pen so you can see it. Generally you’ll have two stitch lines that cross right here. So we’re crossing here. Here’s one and then this one right here. And there’s the criss cross. So as long as my seam here comes either right at that cross or on the same side I’m not going to lose my point. If I sew down here and take off that point then you lose your point. So that’s just a little tip about how to always keep your points and make sure they’re nice and sharp. You can always put a pin through there. I like to just sew along and watch for that criss cross. And make sure I don’t lose my point on that. That is one of those tips where if you’re, if you’re. And you’re going to make four of these for each block. Oop let me iron this a little better over here. Give it a shot of steam. If you find you have too much bulk there in the middle you can press that seam open otherwise it doesn’t matter. So just you be the judge of that. And we’re going to put those there. So then we’re going to make this block right here.
Now this block consists of two gray half square triangles and a solid gray block and a solid print block. Now because when you sew when you’re going to make your gray triangles like this just the same way we did the other ones, you’re going to draw the line, you’re going to sew on either side. When you do that your, your block then becomes 4 ½. You lose that half an inch. So now for your corner square over here you’re going to match it with and your gray square, those, this five inch square is going to have to be cut down to 4 ½. So you’ll just cut a half an inch off two sides. And then we’ll put that together. So the second block goes together with the white toward the color like that and again this way. And then this one over here. So see how that goes together. You’re going to make four of those as well. We can sew one together here. It just goes together here right like a four patch. Sew our top, sew the next one. And then we’re going to sew these two blocks together. Make sure they’re lined up just right. They are. Mostly for me that means that my half square triangles are both going in the same direction. Sew a little, make sure your middle is lined up. You want to make that middle match. Alright and then we’re going to press this open. Come along here and press it open. I like to press from the top. And then I’ll flip over and make sure that my seams are laying down how I want them to. Mostly it’s how they want to. Alright and then you’re going to need four of these.
The last thing that you’re going to need for your block is a center square right here. This is our center square. And that’s going to be an 8 ½ inch piece that you’re going to cut out of your gray fabric. So let me show you how this goes together because this is really fun. So we’re going to take our big block here. This is our block. And it’s made up of three rows. So these ones here they go up like this. You see this, this is what I mean, the white part goes up. And we’re going to have four of those around our outside edge like this. Just like that. I have an extra one here. Oh that’s because I have that one. I have made one so I have an extra. So we’re going to put these together.
Now our corner blocks right here, those are going to go with the color in like this. And see how that forms the little crown right there. That’s how that crown forms. So you’re going to put your color in on all four corners just like that. And then you’re going to sew your rows together. These to this. These to this. And the third row together and then you’re going to sew all your big rows together to make this giant big 24 inch block. Now let me show you how these layout when they put them together because it. You’re just going to put them right together with each other. I have a couple of finished ones over here. So here’s this one and here’s this one. And you’re just going to sew those together like that. And you’ve got, we’ve got one, two, three, of these big blocks across the front. And here’s your sew line right here. Right here. So there’s your block line. And you’re just going to sew one, two, three, and then you’re going to sew the next row added onto it. So here’s the next one. And these are just such big blocks I don’t even have hardly have room to show you. But see how it’s starting to make this secondary gray square right here. I mean it just comes together and looks so cool.
And this is a take on that old antique Crown Block. It’s just such a fun block to make. Now color placement is important on this. We had, we originally had our gray in here and it just didn’t pop that color. So make sure you look at that and try a few things before you stitch it all together. But it just makes a great quilt. Again it’s about 88 by 88 so a nice big quilt. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Crown Block quilt from the MSQC.