Happy Memorial Day! Hi! This is Penny Halgren from QuiltBlockLibrary.com and QuiltBlockLibrary.tv, and this is Memorial Day weekend in the United States so I thought I would show you how to sew together the Washington’s Star quilt block.
This quilt block actually has two stars in it and I’m doing it in red, white and blue to celebrate the holiday. So I’ve got all my pieces cut out and I’m ready to get started. Thanks for joining me, let’s go to the sewing machine.
After the one I’m sewing blocks I look for pieces that I can combine so that I don’t have as many seams in the block. And so what I did was to take a look at the where were cutting instructions and I could see that in the center of these stars there are four little square patches. And so instead of cutting four individual 2 ½ inches squares I cut one large 4 ½ inch square and then m y markings here show that I’ve got four of those and then also I saw that I could combine two patches and cut up angle that’s 2 ½ x 4 ½ inches and so I put little circles there and so that’s why on the flat board you’ll see different shapes.
My first step is to sew all these little half square triangles together. And instead of laying them out, I’ve just tucked them out so I’ve got red and white and blue and white half square triangles together. So I’ll just put down the right sides together and stitch on the long end. Now that I have my patches all laid out and the half squared of triangles are all seamed together, it’s time to decide how I’m going to sew the patches together to complete the block.
So the first thing I’m going to do is take all of these little units and sew them together. And up well sew them together is just to sew these right sides together first and then attach sew also this way and then attach them this way. So all and they’ll all end up with a square. Now that these are sewn together, I’ll just flip this over and so this patches together, so that I will end up with the squares. Now that I’ve got the squares sewn together, I can start sewing the rows together.
So what I can do is sew this in columns and start by just sewing the first column to the second column. So I place those right sides together and change stitch. I have these first two columns sewn together. They’re still hooked together with their chain stitching. And now that I look at the center strip, in order you get this one sewn together here I’m going to need to sew these two at the top and the bottom. So that would be my first step. Now that these little guys are sewn together at the top and bottom, I can take my next two columns and sew them together. And I have these two sets of columns sewn together and so what I’m going to do is turn this on top of here and then sew these together.
So it’s going to be a little bit tricky and then I’m just going to stick a pin into each one of these so that I remember which pair I’m sewing together. Now we have these all sewn together, so I’ve got four patches across and the next thing I’m going to do is sew this last patch onto each one of these rows so they’ll have all my rows sewn together. Now I have all the patches in every row sewn together, they’re chains sewn so they’re all attached and everything is in its place from what I can tell and so I’m ready to start sewing the rows together.
So I’ll just fold it down and I can just pick this whole thing up and take it to my sewing machine and stitch across the row. The top row is sewn and now I’m just going to sew the second row to the third row and I’m just going to continue sewing down the rows so the next time you see me, this quilt block will be finished.
This Washington star quilt block is all finished and ready to be put in to a quilt. This is pretty cool little block it’s got two stars and then separated by the little triangles here on the top and bottom. It’s relatively easy to sew even though it has a lot of patches in it and by combining the patches you can make it even quicker, but you do have to be careful how you measure and how you cut to be sure that you’re cutting your patches in the correct size, because the pattern is going to have in all little just 2 ½ inch squares. So if you make a four inch square, be sure it’s a 4 ½ inch square adding your seam allowances.
Thanks for joining me, this is Penny Halgren from QuiltBlockLibrary.com and QuiltBlockLibrary.tv. If you’re not already there head on over the QuiltBlockLibrary.com and get the free download of this Washington’s Star quilt block pattern. Have a great Memorial Day weekend, peaceful piecing.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services