Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star
Quilt Company. Take a look at this quilt behind me. Isn’t this fun? Don’t you love how the
white squares pop and the black squares pop? Well I’m going to show you how to do this. So
this is a take off on a quilt we made years ago called Summer in the Park. And it was so much
fun to make it. And of course over the years and things happen and we’ve used that in several
different quilts but the other day I had an idea. And I thought what happens if. And I thought what
happens if we change the size of these strips. And we put smaller strips inside our strip
sets. So to make this quilt you’re going to need one roll of 2 ½ inch strips. And we have
used Eliza by Williamsburg for Windham fabrics. You’re going to need a half a yard of black fabric
and a half a yard of white. Now these are your pop colors right here so whatever color you use just
know you need a half a yard of each one of those. So for our outer border out here, this is a nice
big eight inch border. And this makes a quilt that is 67 by 67. Now remember if you love this quilt
and you see it on your bed you just have to add another jelly roll and double your yardage, you
know. So just remember it’s easy to go up or down on these quilts by what pre cut you decide to add
to it and you use. So for our back of the quilt we used 4 ¼ yards. And we used this beautiful
print back and it just has these touches of gold in there. And I just think that just looks
so pretty. So the quilt pattern we used on this is called Variety. Now when I choose a pattern
for a quilt, I look at it and if it looks elegant to me I choose an elegant pattern. If it looks
whimsical to me I’ll choose a whimsical pattern. If there’s a lot of sharp lines I tend to
put something round in it, you know. So just, when you’re choosing a pattern, just you know,
it’s always personal preference but, you know, feel free to make those decisions. So I also used
the clearly perfect slotted trimmer. This block is cut on the 45 and that’s the degree of this
ruler so you can use a ruler that has a 45 line on it as well. But this clearly perfect slotted
trimmer in the large size makes it really easy. Alright so let me show you how I did this. I have
two strip sets. This is actually a tube method. And I put my two dark strips with a white
strip in the middle . And then my next strips I put two light strips with a dark strip in the
middle. And you can see I’ve already got these sewn together. Now just a little tip. If you use,
if you cut these yourself I think you’re ok. But I used mine from two different manufacturers that
cut 1 ½ inch strips. And they weren’t the same size. Now these strip sets need to be the same
size so that they line up. But you can see, when they cut these, this one has a larger peak.
They’re measuring from the outside of the peak to the outside of the peak. This one has a smaller
peak. So they’re measuring from the inside. And so when you lay them together you can
see they’re a little off. So make sure that your strips are all the same size, even if you
pulled them in from your stash, check to make sure they’re all the same size because that will
save you hours of headaches. I’m telling you. Alright so what we’re going to do, I’ve sewn
these two lights to a dark. And two darks to a light. We’re going to put them right
sides together and we’re going to sew down both sides of this and make this a tube. So I’m
just going to line these edges up right here like this and I’m going to start sewing. And
I’m going to sew the whole length of this a quarter of an inch from the
side. And I like to kind of get them lined up out here a little bit and
just let the sewing machine take it through and keep going. Alright line up one
more time. Stay on that quarter inch, straighten up and we’re almost to the end
here. Alright so now what I’m going to do is I’m going to flip this around and I’m going to
sew down the other side. Now again you want to make sure that these are nice and lined up. And
if your strips are the same size they will be. I actually really learned that the hard way.
I made several blocks and I’m like why aren’t these lining up. And then I discovered it was my
two middle strips were a little different size. Alrighty. Now we’re at the end
and I’m going to look and make sure I caught this whole side here and I did. And then what we’re going to do is
we’re going to start cutting these open. And we’re going to use our clearly perfect
slotted trimmer and we’re going to shoot for a seven inch block on this. And so what I’m going to
do is I’m going to lay my stitch line right here on their stitch line just like this.
And we are going to cut up like this and we are going to cut down. And we are going
to put this over here to the side. And what that gives us, look at this. What that gives us is
this block right here that has those two pieces on either side. And it looks so cool. And so now
we’re going to flip our ruler and we’re just going to keep going along this whole strip. So since I’m
left handed I flip this over so I could cut from the other direction. And again I’m just going to
lay my stitch line on their stitch line. And I’m going to cut this right here and just trim this
edge right here. It’s a little tiny bit. And then I’ll get another one. And then I can just pull
this over and I can flip my ruler. And I will be cutting the direction that is most comfortable for
your hand. You want to make sure that you do that. And you’re just going to cut your whole strip
like this. Line up my seam line on their seam line. Now if you’re using a 45 what you’re going
to do is you are going to actually lay this on here this way. So you’ll put your 45 so that
it goes along the edge of the ruler right here. And see this 45 right here. And you’ll pull
this all the way over to the edge and you’re just going to make your cut right there. And
that’s how you do it using a regular ruler. This is so much easier for my brain and makes
it really easy. So you’re going to cut these all. And then we’re just going to open them up.
Let me cut one more so I have a full block here. So seven, just like this. And then I’m just
going to put this aside. Now actually if you cut the whole strip you’ll have this little piece
left at the end. It’s a little bit of waste but maybe not. I have something to show you in
the end. So I’m going to press these open. And I scrapped all of mine up. You’ll notice no
block up here has the same four pieces in it. I thought this would look better scrappy. You can do it whatever way you want of course. But
let me show you how these go together. Alright. So now what we’re using to match when we set
this quilt together is I made it in four blocks like this. I let my center white square be the
middle and I put all my blocks together in fours. And so when you do that, I’m going
to put this block together in fours. And of course we’ll have some of the same fabrics
here because they come from the same strips. So here’s this one in fours. And then look what
happens, the other ones, the black ones start to line up out here. . So let me get these
on here. And so as you sew your blocks in fours all of a sudden you see these forming.
So when you add your next row to it, it’s going to be like this. Let’s put one more
in here so we can show you how that finishes up. And so then you end up with black
squares and white squares and it just all comes together. It’s just
so cool how it just like happens. So I actually have another
block over here that I have made. And I did it with solids because
sometimes things are easier to see in solids. So I did two black strips with a colored
green and two white strips with a colored blue. And so when you put them together with
these solids it’s really fun because you get, everything is going to line up colorwise. And so
you’re going to get this blue square like this. And your secondary square out here is
going to be the black one like this. Do you see how that happens? So then you end up
with a big, these big swaths of color that are just really fun to work with and really fun to do.
Now obviously you’re going to put this together, when you put this together, again let’s look at
the quilt because I’ve sewed four blocks together. So I put my white in the center and
sewed this block to this block to this block to this block to this block. And then I
added the next row. And when I add this next row that’s when your secondary block matches up
with the one above it because this is a row here and this is a row here. So we have
four rows on this. There’s 16 blocks. But at the end of every strip, honestly when you
start cutting these out, you’re going to have a piece that’s just about, I don’t know. It’s not,
let me cut these few right here and let me show you because it’s not very much. So we’ll go
here. I’ll cut one more here. Oop, hang on. So I’ve got one here like this. And then
you end up with a piece like this. Now this, this is actually, I actually have a hard time
with this kind of waste because I feel like there’s a lot going on here. We could do something
really cool with this. And so my assistant Kathleen, she is also not a waster and she was
a little worried about these so she put together this pillow using these tiny pieces. And I
think it came together so cute. And it’s just, it’s just the leftover pieces. So whatever scrappy
pieces you have leftover don’t be afraid to sew them together, see what happens. We’re not
having the same thing happen with our squares but we’re having a lot of fun and you
have a little decorative side pillow. Then she had to cut off some of those pieces
and so she made an even smaller one with the pieces she cut off. And so it’s just really fun to
see with the scraps. And you guys know I’m not a waster. Most of you are not wasters. So it’s just
fun even though it’s not the same exact pattern, how cool will this look on a bed. You know,
when you put that on your bed next to your quilt or you make a little table topper with it you
know, to go along with the quilt that you’ve made. So we hope you enjoyed this fun tutorial on Summer
Squares from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. We hope you enjoyed watching this video. If
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a new tutorial comes out. See you next Friday.
