I've seen this great quilt top sample at the Wildflower Quilt Co. in Lakeville for months, and decided to purchase the kit tonight. I was thinking it would be a good quilt to make for a friend undergoing cancer treatment... with the added benefit of not requiring a lot of mental power from me, as I followed the provided pattern.
Tonight, I sat down with the pattern (which was available for free from Riley Blake's website), and found myself feeling very frustrated with the pattern and methods recommended, which required a lot of additional steps and wasted quite a bit of fabric.
So, instead, I'm going to take a stab at rewriting the pattern, myself, and making some improvements! My goal is a quilt pattern that takes into account the following things that I consider to be components of well written patterns:
Do not waste fabric unnecessarily (e.g., one at a time HSTs when you are doing multiples of the same two colors).
Have a detailed, labeled diagram of all the components of a block.
Tell which way to press seams to reduce bulk.
Give the sizes of pieces at each stage.
Give the sewist extra fabric to trim blocks to the right size and result in a more accurate block.
Make more than one piece at a time and utilize smarter sewing.
Where possible, give a cutting list.
Here is the quilt I am seeking to recreate:
The final quilt size is 71 1/2" x 71 1/2". Perfect for a throw or cozy cuddly quilt!
Here is the actual block:
Each block will finish to16.5" x16.5" (16" x 16" when sewn into the final quilt). The full quilt requires 16 blocks (4 rows of 4 blocks).
To make each block: you will make 2 sets of magic 8 half square triangles (HSTs), that finish at 2.5" x 2.5" with the (orange) outer fabric and background fabric, four flying geese with the outer fabric and background and four flying geese with the inner fabric and background fabric that measure 2.5" x 4.5, and then piece them together with corner squares of 2.5" x 2.5" background, a 4.5"x 4.5" center of the star, and 2.5" pieces of the outer fabric for the square above. Here it is, piece by piece:
Cutting List:
Background (off-white in chart):
A: 2 squares n
.6 3/4" x 6 3/4" (this resulted in quite a bit of "trimming down", so I might try it at 6.5" x 6.5")
B: 1 square 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" - cut in 4 pieces on the diagonals (*Edited, was uncut)
C: 4 squares 3" x 3" cut in half on diagonal (*edited, was 2 7/8" square, uncut)
D: 8 squares 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" (corner squares)
Outer Points Fabric (orange in chart):
A: 2 squares 6 3/4"x6 3/4"
B: 1 square 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" - cut in 4 pieces on the diagonals (*Edited, was uncut)
E: 2 rectangles 12.5" x 2.5"
F: 2 rectangles 8.5" x 2.5"
Inner Sawtooth Star Fabric (blue in chart):
C: 4 squares 3" x 3" cut in half on diagonal (*edited, was 2 7/8" square, uncut)
G: 1 square 4 1/2" x 4 1/2"
Step 1: Use the Magic 8 Method to Make 16 HSTs that are trimmed to 2.5" x 2.5".
Take one Block A each from the background and outer fabric. Placing Right sides together, draw diagonal lines connecting corners (making an "x" from top right to bottom left corner and top left to bottom right corner. Sew four seams 1/4" from the line on both sides.
As shown above in the third picture, cut the block in half from top to bottom,right to left, and along the drawn two lines from step one. Press to dark side, trim each block to 2 1/2" x 2 1/2". Make two of the layer cakes. Makes 16 blocks.
Step two: Original Plan was to use the No Waste Method for Flying Geese, below, to Make 4 flying geese, trimmed to 2 1/2" x 4 1/2". Instructions: Do this with Background and Outer (orange) Fabric (the outer fabric will be the sky, background will be the geese(, and also with Background and Inner (blue) Fabric (note the flying geese in the final block are opposite, for the orange geese, the outer triangles (the "geese" are background fabric and the orange is the center triangle (the "Sky"),but for the blue geese, the "geese" are the blue fabric and the "sky" is the background..
A. Take a B block and 4 C blocks (from the fabrics as noted above). Draw diagonal lines on the C blocks as shown below. Line up 2 of the C blocks diagonally on a B block, running into each other, as shown below, and sew two seams 1/4" on each side of the drawn lines. Cut down the center and press to the "geese" side.
You will end up with a block that looks like this:
B. Take the two remaining C blocks and add one to the remaining corner, and sew two seams on each, 1/4" away from the line.
. Cut apart on the drawn line, and press (to the "geese" or open).
Edits/changes: After making my test block, I realized that this method just didn't get me the size flying geese I needed (too small), so I tried a new method, below:
Take one of the quarter triangle B pieces (the background, for the inner square, the outer square fabric for the outer square) and take one of the halved triangle C pieces. Line up the points in the corner, and sew a 1/4" seam. Press it (toward the smaller triangle, and repeat on the other side, with the remaining half of the 3" Square. Press, and trim to 2.5" x 4.5" Do this to make 4 flying geese with the Outer Star fabric and 4 with the Inner Star fabric.
Step 3: Piecing the Top two and bottom two rows! Sew together four HSTs and one flying geese unit to look like this unit, below. Press seams to the dark side, or press seams open to reduce bulk. Sew one of the Block D (2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares) on each side. These will form the top and bottom rows of the block, but will face opposite directions (with the orange "sky" in the geese block on the outside edge of the block, see block diagram for placement). Make 2 of these units. These are Row Z units.
Take two HSTs and one block E and sew them together so they look like this (press seems toward the rectangle). These are Row Y units. Make two.
Sew each of the Row Z units to a Row Y unit, carefully watching placement so the HSTs are pointing in the right direction. Press seams toward Row Y units. Make two of these Row XY units:
Step 4: Outside borders. Piece together two HSTs and one Flying Geese Block in the configuration below.
These should measure 2.5" x 8.5" when finished. Sew each of these to an F block. This is side block X. Make two. The side pieces should look like the block to the left.
Step 5: Sawtooth Star Center Block. First, make 4 flying geese blocks with the 4 inner fabric block Cs and the background block B. Use the flying block method shown above.
Piece together the Sawtooth Star block the following way:
Top and Bottom Rows: Block D, Flying Geese, Block D. Press away from the flying geese block. Make two. Should be 8 1/2" x 2 1/2" when finished.
Center row: Flying Geese block, Block G, Flying Geese Block. Should be 4 1/2" x 8 1/2" when done. Sew the three rows together. Should look like this when done:
The middle row will be a block X, the sawtooth star, and a block x. It should look like this when finished, and should be 16 1/2" x 8 1/2". Press seams toward the orange F rectangles.
Add the top and bottom rows on, pressing toward the rows xy.
Size up the block to 16 1/2" x 16 1/2". Make 15 more!
That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by!
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