First, I drew the block on the computer and colored it in my selected color scheme:
In the process of doing this, I realized that this block is actually made up of nine smaller blocks:(all FINISHED sizes)
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| One 4-inch block for the center |
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| Four 4-inch Four-Patch blocks in the corners |
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| Four 4-inch Triangle-In-A-Square blocks for the star's rays |
The center block and the four patch blocks are simple enough, but the triangle-in-a-square blocks are a little more challenging. I found and tried two ways to make them--using Tri-Rec rulers (which I already had on hand), and paper piecing. I figure not everyone has a set of Tri-Recs, so I'm going to show how I did the paper piecing.
First download and print the following two files MAKING SURE THAT ON YOUR PRINTING SCREEN YOU CHOOSE EITHER "NONE" OR 100% FOR THE SCALING:
Your pages will look like these:
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| Paper Foundations |
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| Cutting Templates |
The cutting templates are vital. They allow you to cut on-grain pieces of fabric that will be exactly the size and shape you will need for this block. I tried to work without them, to "freestyle," and it did not work.
Cut out your template shapes along the lines. Roughly cut out the paper foundations leaving some margin beyond the outer lines of the block.
At this point, you can cut some 5-6" strips of your fabrics to make cutting your template pieces a bit simpler. I, in my wisdom, cut 4.5" strips and that turned out to be a mistake. It was hard to line up my pieces of fabric since I had no margin for error, so cut your strips larger, if you want to cut strips. Note in the pictures below, my fabric isn't as large as the paper template. Yours should be about the same size as the template.
Now attach your center triangle fabric to the WRONG side of the paper foundation, holding it up the light to make sure the edges of your fabric extend at least 1/4" beyond all of the stitching lines.
Next, pin one of your side pieces on top of your center piece, matching up edges and making sure the straight grain of the fabric is going to end up on the outside edge (the more bias edge should be the one that is on the seam line). Either pin the corner fabric in place or hold it in place while you flip the whole assemble over and put it under your presser foot. Starting on the paper and using a smaller-than-normal stitch length (1.5 on my machine), sew along the stitching line right through the paper and both layers of fabric.
Fold the paper out of the way and trim the seam allowance to 1/4."
Then fold that piece out and either finger-press or press in press with a dry iron. Then repeat with the other corner piece. You will end up with this:
All that's left to do is to trim the excess fabric and paper along the outer lines (use a ruler and rotary cutter) and tear off the paper!
If you have done as I said and not as I did, your block will be perfectly square. I paper pieced one of these and used Tri-Recs for the rest:
For the rest of the block:
Make four Four-Patch blocks using 2.5" patches or strips for a block that is 4.5" unfinished. Here is a tutorial on strip-piecing Four-Patches.
For the center you need one more 4.5" (unfinished size) block. I chose to fussy cut a print that I had. The original pattern Kay gave us has this center block pieced out of four triangles. You decide!!
Here is my finished block:
A final bit of advice: make sure you line the four-patch blocks up the way you see them here, with one of the colored blocks in the corner next to the center. Kay and I both did this wrong and it doesn't look right. I re-did mine and still ended up with one turned the wrong way!! So I re-re-did it. Lay out your little blocks, check, double-check, then sew. Unless you want to spend a lot of time with your seam ripper.
