Jenny: Hey, Isaac.
Isaac: Hey Grandma. Jenny: Isaac brought you right up the front
steps of my studio. And look behind me, you get to see some of my irons. I collect these
irons when I teach someplace. I like to get an iron. And I just love them and so I have
a bunch. They’re fun, aren’t they? Come on into my studio. Alright. So today we’re
going to film block two. We’re at block two and I”m just really excited about it.
So let’s see what we’ve got here. So it is month two and we have two blocks
for you today. They’re very similar so they won’t be hard at all. But this is your little
box. You should have a number two on it and you should have it. So we’re going to open
this up and see what’s inside. Alright, right here, of course with the cute tissue.
And we’ve got this wonderful star patch pattern right here. And we are actually making
two blocks so we’re making the four patch star and the star patch block. And these are
those two right here. So we have this one right here and we have these little ones right
here. Now you’re going to make four of these and you and I are going to sew through the
whole thing. So I actually, this is my box where I started sewing these. I have some
fabrics in here. But this is what you’re going to get right here. And so we have a
little 2 ½ background. We have some strips here of background color and this pink strip.
And they’re already cut for you so that’s really awesome. We have little squares already
cut. So you’re just going to be able to sew these together. That’s going to be really
fun. These bigger blocks here are going to be for our star legs. And we will go through
all of this as we go along. And then this also is for the other block. So they separate
them which I really like because, you know, you want to do, you want to do it just like
they have it on here. And so the first block we’re going to start
with today is our big four patch star. And these, we’re going to make four four patches
for the middle. And we’re going to make eight of these legs right here. Now let me
show you where it is in the quilt. This is it right here. And the star is, I mean, it’s
just so quick and easy, you’re just going to be amazed at this. So the first thing we
want to do is we want to make our star legs. Now you’re going to need eight of these.
And so what I’m going to do is I’m going to take a background square right here and
a colored square right here. Now we’re going to work on the wrong sides of these. Let me
press them so they’re nice and flat. This one has a bunch of little fabric fluff on
there and I’m going to press this one as well. And we’re going to put these right
sides together. Now to make our, to make our half square triangles for the legs, you know
there’s lots of ways to make half square triangles . But we are going to do this so
that you get eight at a time. And I’m going to go ahead and move these things out of the
way. Actually we should probably look at the directions, shouldn’t we? Ok, so I’m doing
it right. I’m doing it just like they wrote it. So the first one we’re going to do is we
are going to draw a line both directions like this. Alright. I hope you guys enjoyed last
month and you got yours done and you’re ready for this. I was pretty excited about
last month. I love seeing how everybody is using different fabrics. You know, that’s
really fun to me. And so I’m drawing a line corner to corner. Sometimes I get talking
and I forget to tell you what I’m doing. So I’m drawing a line corner to corner.
Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to sew a quarter of an inch on both sides
of these lines. Now one of the things that people always say to me is how important is
that quarter of an inch? What’s mostly important is that you’re consistent. So I sew, I use
the edge of my foot, my presser foot as my marker and make sure your blocks are lined
up. And I set that on here. And I”m just going to sew along here. Let me make sure
I’m, oh I did, I unthreaded my needle. Sometimes that happens. Alright so go back to the beginning,
pull out, my foot tends to slip a little bit. So I”m just going to sew down the side on
this line. Now because my little presser foot is pretty narrow my quarter of an inch of
going to be narrow. But we’re going to square these up so now stress on that. So I”m going
to sew down here and then I’m just going to flip this around and sew down the other
side. Then I”m going to cut my thread and I’m going to do the same thing on the other
line. So sew down and then we’re going to sew down this side too. Alright so now what
we’re going to do to make eight of these is we’re actually going to cut this four
different directions. And so we’re going to start by cutting it in half like this.
And now if you have a rotating mat, that’s awesome. If you don’t let me just show you
this wonderful trick right here. Look at this. Rotating mat. I’m just kidding you. Actually
it works really good. If you have a small mat. Don’t ever feel like, you know, you
don’t want to be cutting or doing something dangerous with your rotary cutter where it
could slip or something. So just make sure that you cut it, you turn it so that it works
for your hand. You know, however you’re cutting. And so I’ve cut it in half both
directions. Now I’m going to cut it on the diagonal both directions like this. And I”m
going to cut it on the diagonal this way. And I’m just lining it up corner to corner
and making sure it goes. So what that gives you right there, is it’s going to give you
eight half square triangles that are all sewn together. And so now we want to square these. Now if you’re going to use the clearly perfect
slotted trimmer, these are going to be 4 ½. So it comes two pieces like this. And the
clearly perfect slotted trimmer has a 4 ½ in line. And you’re going to put your stitch
line on their stitch line. So here’s our little stitch line right here. We’re going
to match that up on our block right here. And we are going to hold that down and trim
that off. And I’m going to do a couple of these this way. So on the tool thing, I know
you’ve heard me say this before but let me just say it again. If you have a tool that
makes sense to your brain, your quilting, it will be so much easier for you because
your brain will relax and you’ll just be able to sew. I had a hard time squaring things
for a long time until this ruler came out. And now that I know I can lay my stitch line
on their stitch line and just rim both sides, it makes it so easy for me. So I’m going
to do four of them this way. And this one, I don’t know if you saw that, but I actually
matched up perfectly on this side so I only had to trim one side. So I have four of these
like this. And then the other one that I’m going to do with the bloc loc so you can see
how to do that. So let’s make sure this one lines up and trim it open like this. Alright.
Hey Misty, will you come press these for me? I’ve got Misty in the house today.
Misty: Happy to help. Jenny: And here, if you’ll press these open.
Misty: Alright. Jenny: I made you a little nest right there
so you have your own little nest. Misty: Perfect. I love it.
Jenny: And then if you’re going to use the bloc loc, what we’re going to do is we’re
going to press these open first. So with the clearly perfect slotted trimmer, you don’t
press open. With the bloc loc you do press open. And so use whichever tool works best
for your brain. Misty, which is your favorite? Misty: I prefer the bloc loc.
Jenny: You prefer the bloc loc. Misty: I do.
Jenny: So does Natalie. And I think those that are a little bit more analytical brains.
Misty: Maybe, ya. Jenny: You know, because you guys are a little
more math smart that way than I am. So with the bloc loc, the way I remember to do this,
and for Natalie and Misty this isn’t even a thing, but because this isn’t exactly
brain friendly for me but I can make it work. So I’m going to show you, and for those
of you who have this don’t feel like you have run out and get this because this will
work. But the way I do it is I always press to the dark side which means I’m going to
press with my dark on the top and roll this back so that my seam now is on the dark side.
What that’s going to do for me is that if I did press to the other side, if this lighter
fabric were a little thinner you could see that seam through that. And you know it just
makes it a little more cleaner looking to do that. So then what I do is I remember that
these words go on my background fabric. And this has a little shaved edge on it right
here. So you just kind of put that up and you just kind of squish it in there, it won’t
move. And I’m going to pull this as far down to the edge as I can and then just cut
around it like this. And this is going to make it nice and straight. And so I’m going
to do that to all four of these. Now if you were, and this is what trips me up a little
bit. Oh this one is perfect. Look at that I’m just going to trim off little dog ears.
Misty: Most of mine have been just exactly right too.
Jenny: Awesome. So on this right here. If I were to put the words on this dark side
because of the way it’s pressed, it doesn’t lay right. You like have a big edge over here
hanging off. So if you ever find yourself cutting off a lot, stop, don’t cut, take
a look at it and make sure that it’s going the right direction. You know, flip it around
and try it on the other side. This one is perfect too. You guys I’m becoming a perfect
half square triangle cutter. This is like a little miracle. You know what, I need a
better blade. Let me see, let me try this other rotary cutter here. You know one of
the most dangerous tools you can have is a rotary cutter that isn’t quite sharp enough.
I feel like on my rotary cutter that I just put over there, I feel like it has like a
little bit of like maybe I ran over a pin or something because it always just leaves
one thread attached. Alright, so we are going to see how this is. This is pretty close as
well. So I’m, oop I didn’t even need to trim it. I didn’t cut anything. There we
go. Just trimming my little dog ear. Alright. Now to get this ready for our block, what
I’m going to do is I am going to sew two sets of these like this so that our, so these
are our star legs. And we’re going to put the white colors together. So I’m just going
to sew two of these like this. And make sure when you lay them down next to each other
make sure they’re, you know, you have your color on the same side and your white on the
same side. Make sure they’re lined up nice and then we’re going to sew just a quarter
of an inch down here. And just so you know, when I sew, when I do the legs and I sew on
either side of the line I just use my presser foot. But when I sew these blocks together
I have a little line on my sewing machine which you probably do also that is marked
with the quarter of an inch and so I make sure that that’s right. You want to get,
you know, when you’re sewing seams together you want to be consistent and you want them
to be on the same. Will you iron those for me?
Misty: Absolutely. Jenny: Ok, so these go together. The whites
go together. And it’s going to make two of our star legs. And we’re actually going
to do this to all four of our blocks, I mean to all eight of our blocks because the star
legs have to be joined on all four sides. So we’re going to sew all of these together
like this. So when you draw a line, when you make half square triangles like this they
come out to 4 ½ which we squared them to so they’re nice and square. And so you’re
going to have to have some corner squares for this block which means they have to be
the same size as these blocks which means they are also going to have to be 4 ½. So
I”m going to cut, use one of these and cut my corner blocks 4 ½. I should look at my
pattern and see if I do this yet. Oh they don’t have me doing it yet. Should I cheat?
Alright, I’m going to go ahead and cut these 4 ½. So I need four blocks that are 4 ½.
And then we’ll be ready to put them together when the pattern says. Wait, my ruler is flipped
over and because these rulers are etched not painted, it actually gives it a little more
sticking power I think. So 4 ½ and then I’m going to cut again, 4 ½ like this. And now
I’m going to turn these and I’m going to stack them, line them right up on top of
each other and again I’m going to cut 4 ½. And when I’m cutting, see these little
pinked edges right here, I kind of, I put my 4 ½ just on this side of those little
pinked edges. And then right here I have a straight edge so I just line it up on the
line. And then you can also check your line by making sure that your lines are lined up
top and bottom and that will give you a nice square block. Alright so these are ready to
go when we need it. Now we have to make our center. And our center
is, wait where’s my little patches, right here. This is our center. And for this center.
Now this is one of the things that I really want to talk to you about because it doesn’t
have to be just like this. If you want it to be just like this it can but it doesn’t
have to be just like this. The star, you know, nobody is going to go to your quilt and look
at the picture and go, Oh you have a blue where a pink should be. Nobody is going to
do that. So don’t stress over that, like if you get one that’s like the wrong direction
or whatever, don’t stress over that. So I’m just going to open mine up and see where
they go here because I am going to try and do it right for you. Just because, just because
you know. So I’m going to lay all these colors out here so I can see them. And we’re
going to make four patches which means I’m basically going to be sewing two of these
together at a time. So it looks like here we have the pink and we have the dark green
and then we have a gold. Probably this orangy gold and this purple. So I”m going to chain
piece these through which means I’m going to line it up on my quarter line and I’m
just going to sew these and let me move this for you.
Misty: You want me to take it? Jenny: Ya that would be great. And I’m just
going to sew these and get these two done. So because right here you can see I’ve done
the pink and the green and the purple and the orange, I’m just going to do these two.
And we are going to open this up like this. And see how they just, they’re in the right
spots, you know, for this. So I”m just going to put these together now. And I’m going
to line them up now and I’m going to make sure that one seam allowance goes one way
and one seam allowance goes the other way and that my beginning is right together and
my end is right together. And that’s going to make a little four patch. And we’re going
to make four of these for the middle for this star. So it’s basically going to be a 16
patch block. Again there are lots of ways to do this. Could you iron that for me?
Misty: Yep. Jenny: And lots of ways to make this happen
so if you want to sew your whole, like all these on one side, you can do it. It’s not
going to change the fact that we have a four patch. So let’s lay this out here like the
picture. And we’re going to put it right here. And then we’re going to lay all the
rest of our squares out to make sure we get them in the right place because some of these
colors, you know, they’re pretty close and to be fair it doesn’t matter. Make four
four patches, sew them together, it’s going to make a 16 block. It’s going to be perfect.
But if you want to do it just like the picture you’re probably going to want to lay them
out. Jenny: So what I’m going to do is I’m
going to lay mine out here. And I have a gold and I have a green. And then we’ve got this
chartreuse color here and a purple. And then we’re down in the bottom four. And we’ve
got another one of these kind of light. Actually yep, that’s actually probably going to be
right. See how close those are. That can be really confusing. Here’s our orange, going
to go there. And then we’re going to do another pink and green down here. And then
over here we’ve got, let’s see we’ve got the purple and we’ve got this reddish,
pinkish color. And I want to tell you that these are Allison Glass Sunprints from Andover.
And they are beautiful. This is a beautiful line of fabric. And they’re just so happy
and colorful. So this looks pretty close to the picture so we’re going to sew it up
and let the chips fall where they may. Now we’re living dangerously. So now what I’m
going to do is I’m going to take these because I’ve laid them all out like this, I’m
actually going to sew this whole row together. I know we’re living on the wild side now.
But I will be able to make, I will be able to chain piece these which means I’m putting
two together and lining them up. That’s going to be one four patch. But I’m going
to go ahead and put these together as the next four patch right here. And then one here.
And then we’ll stop and make these four patches so we don’t, we don’t confuse
ourselves too much because that may not be a thing for you but it truly is for me. Alright
so now what I’m going to do is I’m going to open these up and I’m going to make sure
I’m still in the right place and I am. And I’m going to fold mine over and stitch these
together. Now what I’m going to do again is I”m going to line up this very first
edge right here, just exactly. And then I’m going to make these two seams go opposite
directions and that’s called nesting. And so I’m going to start and what I’ll do
then is I lift these open. And I make one seam goes one way and one seam goes the other.
And I look to make sure they’re just right together there. And I’m just going to sew
down the side. You’ll get to where, like me, I can feel with my finger that there’s
no opening in between those. And that’s what you want, you want no opening. Alright
so then we’re going to put these same same, where we’re going to line them up. And then
if you’re lucky like me you’re going to hand these off to be pressed open. And I’m
going to sew this other one together here. Now Misty is using a little bit of best press
which is like a little starch spray. We use flatter, we use the best press. Some people
like the starch in the can. You can also use your steam with your iron and you can also
use, you know, a mister bottle. You know I have a mister bottle over here that I use
all the time that I love. And just, you know, sometimes a little bit of something wet, you
know, just encourages it to do what you want it to do. Alright now I’m going to try and
put these right back where I got them from this one right here so let’s make sure.
So turn, this is gold on the outside, green on the inside. So I”m going to sew these
two together. And again we’re just sewing the 2 ½ inch squares. So we line up the first
one, take a few anchoring stitches, lift it open to make sure that your seams are going
opposite directions. Now this seam is not going in opposite direction which I’m going
to show you what to do about that. I’m going to push it over with my fingers because I
don’t want that bulk. And so I’m going to push it over with my fingers like this.
So see right here we have this little fold right here. What I’m going to do is I’m
just going to my little scissor and I’m just going to clip that, not clip the stitch
but clip that. And then it can lay down. So then when Misty presses it, it will lay down
nice. So go ahead and press those. Let me get these lined up. Make sure, yep, that’s
right. Put these together. And I’m going to make this one. So this is what happens
when you have a magnet watch band. Clip this one. Alright now I”m going to press this
one back right here. And let’s see how we got this now. Make sure we got this going
the right direction. And oop, this is on this side. This is on this side. Now let me look
at this. Alright, Misty and I have both pressed our seams going the same way so I’m going
to press it the opposite way right here which means now this seam is going to go down and
this seam is pressed up. So see how they press together and that will help them lay nice.
So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to lay these together like this. And
we are going to sew these little four patches. And this makes a 16 block. And let me see
here. I’m going to do these. And there’s lots of little seams to line up. What I like
about all the little seams is it keeps you exactly going the right direction on all your,
I mean lined up so all your little parts are matching because, you know, every time you
nest you create a little, you know where it comes together it’s just perfect. Oh mine
is. Jenny: Now on mistakes, if I were to make
a mistake here and this was not perfect, what I would do is, like if this were just a hair
off or something like that, which mine actually looks pretty good. But if it were a hair off
I would go ahead and probably put my block together unless it bothered me. If my eye
goes right to it like three times then I take it out and fix it. If it doesn’t and I have
to search to find it, I am not going to worry about it. Alright now we’re ready to add
our legs and your legs should fit exactly to your block like this. And because we went
ahead and cut our corners already at 4 ½ we can put those in up here. And this is how
you’re going to lay out this block. And I rarely lay out my blocks like this because
I’ve done them so many times. What I do is I take my two side pieces and I sew to
the middle like this. And I’m going to put one of these on either side. Ok now here’s
a good little teaching moment right here. Alright, see how this isn’t perfect right
here? When I put this on here I know that if I sew a quarter of an inch this is going
to get caught in that quarter and nobody’s ever going to know that that kind of swooped
in. Also right here, I want to show you right here. So see where, Isaac you might have to
come in real close on this to see. So see where these two threads cross right here?
So I have a thread going this way and I have a thread going this way. When I come across
here and sew, as long as I hit that point or stay on that side, I won’t lose the point
of my legs. So that’s how you keep your little points so you don’t lose them. And
I’m just going to sew down here a quarter of an inch. And I have been known to like
swerve a little so that I catch that point. But it looks like I don’t have to swerve
on here. I want to keep my seam going that right direction. And I’m going to make sure
these are lined up. And I’m going to put the one on the other side like this. See if
I can do this so I don’t lose my point. Now if you lose your point, it’s not the
end of the world. No one has ever checked to see on my quilt if my points are perfect,
I’m pretty sure. Maybe someone has. But if they have, I don’t know. They might just
be disappointed. Alright so now what we have to put the other
sides on which means we’re going to add a block to either side of this, these two
little legs right here. And so I am going to sew my corner blocks on these. Make sure
that stays on there. And corner block on this one. And then put my corner blocks on this
one as well. Now let me see. You want to iron those to the, those blocks are going to go
to the, wait I can’t tell, I don’t know yet. We’ll fix it when we get to it. Alright
here we go. Sometimes I don’t iron until the end because then you can really make everything
go the way that it wanted to go. So here’s this right here and you can see we’re going
to line it up here. We’re going to hit this joint and we’re going to hit this joint.
And we’re going to make sure our seams are going. So on this one I pressed these squares
to the outside. These ones are going to want to be pressed to the inside. So I’m going
to go ahead and sew those down before I press them. You can do it either way. Misty has
hers pressed over there for me, the other leg so it should go together real nice. And
I’m just going to feel that that’s nested. I’m going to line up this one. And this
one too. Now as long as your quarter of an inch seams are fairly accurate, this is going
to go together really nice. Look, we’re almost there with one set of legs. See this
right here, see this is off a little bit. I think I can still catch that in the quarter
inch seam, but I might lose my point a little bit. But if you’re really worried about
that, what you can do if you could slide this, you know, you could take out the seams, slide
this fabric up to the top. I sewed it from the bottom to the top. You could sew, take
out the seam, slide that part up and then the difference would be here at the bottom
and you would be sure not to lose your point. I am going to live a little dangerously. I
am just going to see if I can do it. See how good it comes out. I am not about total perfection.
I am about pretty good, I’m about pretty good. But I do know how to make it perfect.
That’s just not part of my personality. So see I’m watching this right now. I’m
watching this because we’re going to lay this seam on this side, but see how this lines
up here. I’m going to be able to fit that in my quarter inch seam. So I”m just coming
along here, watching where I hit the crossover. And I think you’re going to be surprised
that it’s going to come out pretty good. Alright, let’s press it. Actually let’s
look at it first. Look at that. That’s pretty good. So I”m good with that. That does not
bother me in the least and we are one and done. And this is block one. We finished the
biggest block. And I feel pretty good about this. Like ta-dah about this. That looks pretty
good, doesn’t it? Misty: It looks awesome. Jenny: Alright. So the next block we get to
make, of wait, actually Misty: You’ve got to sash it.
Jenny: I”ve got to sash it, one more thing. I didn’t turn the page so let me just turn
the page. Alright so now right here you can see. This gives you actually all the colors
so you know exactly what colors go where. Then we’re going to put a sashing on the
side. Now what I want to do is I want to make sure that my colors are still oriented the
right way to put that sashing on. Will that matter? No, because if your star is turned
the other way it’s still going to look beautiful and you’re going to have a sashing on a
side. You know last time I put the sashing on the wrong side and I changed it for you
but in retrospect I don’t think it really matters. Alright here’s your little piece
right here. And it’s a 16 ½, 1 ½ by 16. And it looks like it goes on the gold, green,
orange, green. I’m being much more careful. I’m going to clip off my little selvedge
edge right here. And I’m going to sew this on. Now if you do this like I’m doing it
without cutting it to 16 ½. 16 ½ is that right? 16 ½. You just want to make sure that
your sashing piece is on top. The feed dogs on your sewing machine will take in more fabric.
So if I were to turn this over and sew it on this way, it wouldn’t lay flat. It would
get a little wonky. So I”m just going to go ahead and sew this on because I believe
in my 16 ½ inch piece. Quarter inch seam . And the nice thing about doing these things
now is that when we’re ready to start putting these blocks together all these little pieces
will be done. Alright, I’m just going to trim this off. Misty, I’ll let you iron
this back. It’s going to open up just like this. And we are going to start on the other
one. So the other ones, these are them right here.
And I’ve done two of them because they’re the same thing over and over again. And so
we, you and I are going to make the last two of these together and I have them right here.
And I have these right here so get out your little pieces. Yours are going to look like
this. Here, I don’t know what to do with that. Yours are going to look like this in
this little bag. And you’re going to have these other little pieces in your box and
we’re going to do some bordering of some of those little stars as we get to them. So
we’re going to put this pattern in our fabulous pattern keeper from month one and we’re
going to look at our star patch block from month two. So we’re going to open this one
up and we are going to make our star patches. So I’m going to start with the green block.
I’ve done a couple of blocks already and I’m going to start with the green one so
look at your colors. Make sure they’re lined out. So we have a red and a chartreuse and
a green and a goldy color. And I”m going to sew that four patch together. And so I’m
starting with my top two. Again it’s just like we sewed the other four patches. This
one is a little bit wonky. Wonky, that’s a technical term. Alright, here we go. I’m
sewing these two. Make sure I’ve still got it on, oh I can flip it over. Whew, I did
that on the wrong side but you can flip them over because we’re only doing two at a time.
So now what I’m going to do is I’m going to take this apart and open it up and make
sure it’s going the right way. So red and green this way and blue and gold this way.
Correct. So now I’m going to sew these together and then I will let Misty press this. And
we will get started on those legs. So just one little four patch for the middle and now
we have the legs. Now when you open your pack you’ll see you have eight of the same color
together and those are your legs. And something orange, gold, green and what’s the other
one? Oh this yellowy color right here. And so you’re also going to have a packet of
these little 2 ½ inch squares right here. And because we have two inch squares on our
little corner of our star right up here when I looked through these some of them had a
flower right in the middle or a bird and when I came across those if they had a little thing
on it that I thought would be cute in the corner, I like set it aside and was like,
you know what, see has this one has that cute little flower. I’m just going to set that
one aside because the rest of these we’re going to cut in half to make four patches.
So I need four of these. Let me look and see. That’s kind of a cutie. And so now I need
eight legs. These are 2 ½ inch squares. And so on eight of these I’m going to draw the
line from corner to corner and sew on that line. So one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight. I’ll count those again. I think I was putting and looking for my ruler
and trying to do too many things at a time. Alright so I”ve got just a regular pen here.
Lay your ruler corner to corner. Now if you don’t want to draw the line and you want
to iron the line, you can do that. You just want to make sure that you iron them this
way, wrong sides together so that you’re sewing in the valley not on top of the mountain.
And so there’s one, two, three, four. Oop, that one’s a little off. Now on a block
this little a little off matters. So make sure that you’re like right corner to corner
on that stitch line because that’s going to matter. Oop. And if your ruler is a little
fat, make sure you just scooch it a little bit. You know, you just want to make sure
that this goes corner to corner like this. And I have no idea how many I’ve drawn the
line on on these. So I”m just going to start sewing my greens and see if I got enough.
And then what you want to do is you want to make sure that these are lined up exactly
because if this is off it’s still not going to equal your correct 2 ½ because whenever
you want, when you want to make a half square triangle with a square and you want the square
to remain the same size. So this is 2 ½ and we want it to remain 2 ½, a 2 ½ inch half
square triangle, then you sew on the line. If you sewed on either side of the line this
would reduce it by half an inch. So you just, you know, if you want your block to remain
the same size, which we do, you want to sew right on the line. Now in the last block of
the month on the Facebook group, there were lots of people who made tiny little ones with
the piece they cut off which I think is amazing. Alright so I’m going to sew on the line
of eight of these. I’m going to put these over here closer to me, line them up. And
I’m just going to chain piece these through like this. And we are going to do all eight.
Make sure they stay lined up and square. I’m really enjoying that Facebook group. I hope
you guys are too. It’s pretty fun to see what everybody’s doing. I love seeing everybody’s
different fabrics. I am also making one in red, white and blue. You know when you make
one of these, this is so dang cute, right? You can’t help but make it in other fabrics.
But people are doing them, oh I’ve seen Christmas, I just seen all different colors
and I just think that’s really fun. I mean this bright happy one is going to be so beautiful
but if one quilt is good well two is even better, right? Alright now we shouldn’t
have to square these if we sew, if our line is accurate, if our line is accurate and our
squares were matched up we shouldn’t have to square these. So we’ll just see how we
did. Now I’m going to go ahead and I have one of these. Have you guys seen these? These
are so cute. So these are like a little, it’s from clover and they’re like little cutters.
And you can wear them like a necklace. So like if you take it, if you do handwork and
stuff on the airplane, this is not scissors. But a friend of mine made this little block
to put mine in and literally you can just do this. So I like these little thread cutters.
And I think this little clover one is beautiful. Alright now if you want to know if your block
is still going to stay square you can fold this back like this and take a look, you know,
finger press it, and take a look and see if you lined up corner to corner. If you did,
you’re good to go. So this one looks pretty good. I’m just going to cut off that side,
let Misty press these back. And I’m just going to trust that they’re all pretty good.
You notice I did not say perfect. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It has to be pretty good.
Alright now some of you guys are going to save these and make tiny ones. You go. You
go. Alright so now we’ve got our little four
patch in the middle and we need to put some legs on it. And these again are going to be
sewn on just like the other one where we put the white ones together like this. Wait, like
this. And that’s going to make our legs. So I’m going to start sewing those together
like this. And sew my quarter of an inch. I’ve got my background fabric together.
There we go. There’s some of those. And we’re going to do, we need eight legs. So
we’re going to sew four sets of these together. And we’re going to try to keep this star
point up here together. And there we go. It took a few turns to get that one to line up.
And alright so now we’re going to sew the last two together. Now on two of these again
on like the big one we’re going to put corner blocks on. So I”m going to add my little
corners on here. Oh here they are up here. And some of these were my cute ones that had
cute things in the middle. This one has a shamrock. I’m going to put that on here
for the green. And I’m going to do that to two of these. Misty, can you iron those
open? And we will just add those to the side. So when you’re adding your sham, shamrocks,
when you’re adding your cute corners to your block you can just do one side of both
like this and flip them around and do both of the other side. Oh, that’s like a little
rainbow. So can I just say that I think fabric designers are amazing, the fact that they
can come up with all these different things. I think that’s so amazing. Let me make sure,
you know all of a sudden you have that gut feeling like there’s no thread in there.
I was wrong, there was thread in there. Alright, Misty if you want to, if you want to go ahead
and iron those. And I’m going to attach my legs now. And again I’m going to again
still keep my block oriented the way it should go. And I’m going to put these on either
side. Now on this one you’ll notice, this is just a hair bigger than the top. And when
that happens, this is a really good trick, if you have a side that’s a little bit bigger,
then what you’re going to do is you’re going to put the big side on the bottom. Big
bottoms to the bottom. And you’re going to start it, lined up like this. We’re going
to sew down. And then we’re going to line up the middle. And even if the bottom has,
you know, it’s a little bit bigger, it has like a little bit of an edge, the feed dogs
will take that in. Just ease it in and it will look like you did it perfectly. So I”m
going to do that on this side. So see how that is right there, it just comes out perfectly.
And I’m going to do that on this side too. So that happens if your quarter inch isn’t
perfect. You’ll have a bigger side and a smaller side. And with any luck it won’t
make too much difference. Alright so now we’ve got this one. And let me see which way she
pressed those. She pressed those in, so I’m going to press these out. Alright so now we’re
ready to add our side pieces like this. And see how it’s all the star legs come together.
And because we added our corner square then it forms a block. So I”m going to go ahead
and put these on here and add this. And I’m going to look and make sure that mine line
up. And then I’m going to watch this star point right here, make sure that I keep those
points. And put the other one on this side. And again, I line up at every junction, you
know, the place where my seams come together. I line up and it makes things, it straightens
them up again. I’m going to let you iron that. And I have one more to put together. The one
with the yellow. And the reason I saved this one and didn’t go ahead and do it is because
I, there was a couple of pieces in my kit that looked like this. Do you see the little
white edge. Now that is because when they folded their strip and trimmed the selvedge
a little edge of the selvedge got in there. This is not going to bother us because we
are going to cut half of this block off and that block will get cut half off. So don’t
die over that. Oop, I’m getting a call from my friend. We’re just going to mute her
and let her, come back to her later. So I’m going to draw my line corner to corner like
this. And I’m going to do two more because I have almost all the legs done on this. But
when I saw that edge, I was like, now it shouldn’t happen but don’t stress out about it because
we’re cutting half of this block off. So, and that’s definitely not intentional. So
what I’m going to do is I”m going to line this up on here just like this. And I’m
going to sew right down the square. Now right up here at the top there will be a tiny little
piece that shows but that’s going to get caught in the seam. So don’t die over that
either. You know we have to make due. We’re make due girls. We have to make due with what
we’ve got and make it work. We get what we get and we don’t throw a fit. I used
to say that to my children all the time. And they were like, mom we know. Alright there’s
that one. I’m going to go ahead and sew the rest of these together. And MIsty if you
could get my four patch ready for me, line it up and it should look like this. And then
what I’m going to do is when I trim these now I’m going to look and make sure that
the part I’m trimming off is this part right here. So we’re going to trim that side and
then this one the same. And this one didn’t have that so it’s good to go. Alright if
you could iron those. Misty: Yep.
Jenny: And then I’m going to sew this little four patch together right here. And she’s
got it lined out for me. Now if you, if you just grab your four patches and go and they’re
all different in the center, it’s not going to matter. Don’t worry about that. Don’t
take anything apart, just yeah. I mean I can’t stress that enough. I mean, it’s really,
at the end of the day it is not going to matter. And the people who are doing like Christmas
and red, white and blue ones and you know the different colors, you know, they don’t
even have a guide to go by and so it can be anything they want it to be. And that also
makes it really fun. It’s pretty much a creative endeavor at that point. When I did
my first star, I mean for the first block, you know how it has all those colors, where
is that one, right here, see it has all these colors. When I did my patriotic one, I just
used two colors. So I really, I really went out of the box and broke all the rules on
that one. I’m just kidding. I don’t really consider that breaking the rules. Alright
so now we have the little ones that we need to make the legs for it. And so I’m going
to go ahead and do that. I’m going to sew all these together. Sets of two. You’ll
have four sets of two. Make sure your whites are together or your background. Like this.
Somebody asked me, you know, if there was more of this fabric available. There is. You
can buy it by, you can buy yardage. You know, like if you want more background fabric. If
you want to get the backing fabric. If you want, whatever fabric you want to get, you
know, so you can, you know, if you want to make another one or you want to make sure
you have some extra, if you make a boo boo or something like that, you can just do that.
I’m going to leave two of these together and I’m going to sew my little corners on
two of these. And I’ll let Misty do her magic and then I’m going to sew the other
one, the other pieces on. Once you start doing it you’re going to be super surprised at
how fast these go together. You’re going to be like holy smokes, I’m done. Misty,
can you get me one more little 2 ½ inch square. Did you see, I almost sewed that on these.
We don’t want that on these. We want two squares on each one. And then I’ve got one
more here. Now if you find yourself at all short, like you have, like you’re missing
a square, one thing I’ve done several times is sewn two of my squares together at once.
So check that because that could be the deal. Alright, here I’ve got one more square here
on the side. Alright here’s these. I’ll let you do that. And now I”m going to sew
my two star legs to the side. And oh this one is way off. I’m not going to be able
to catch that. So I’m actually going to take this one out and don’t try this at
home. And I’m going to sew this from the top so that my points are going to line up.
That one would have bothered me so if it bothers you go ahead and pull it out and do it. Now
I have no idea why they lined up the second time and let me look and see if it worked.
It did. It’s still a hair off but it’s actually going to be fine. So I’m going
to put it on here, wait, what side. Make sure it’s going the right direction. Purple and
blue. There we go, alright. Come around and sew the other side. Make that line up. Now
we’re going to put the other legs on to give a four, let’s see. My points look very
good. Can you see them? I’m making sure Isaac is showing you my good points. You know
we’re proud of those points when we get them on there, right? Alright, again I’m
going to nest this up, one seam one way, one seam the other. And again even though we’ve
pressed it sometimes the seams have to go the other direction when you get them on.
That’s alright, we’ll just repress. Repress doesn’t sound right, press over. We’ll
press over. No we’re still good. Oh I sew so fast on this the thread will jump sometimes
and will come right off that loop. I’m just going to make sure that’s still attached.
That’s lined up. This one is together. I still have my point. Do you guys talk to yourself
when you sew like I do? It’s like I have all these little encouraging, you can do it,
you can do it. Good job, Jenny. Alright, let’s press this now. I’m going to grab me some,
oh here we go. Some of this, make a nice flat star. Now I want to show you on these right
here. So see how, you know, we’re a little bit
wonky here. I’m just going to kind of straighten it up these sides because we are going to
have to put a little bit of a piece of fabric on here. So I’m just going to kind of straighten
them up. And what I do is I kind of match my ruler at the beginning and the end. And
if there’s a little piece here that just barely shows I’m just going to shave that
off. So it’s not like I’m changing my block size. It’s just kind of like I’m
straightening it up so that it’s a little more pretty. And then things will just lay
much nicer. Alright so now what you want to do is you’ve
got to look at these borders. Because our orange star right here is going to have a
pink border. Now this border is cut for you, 1 ½ but you’ll have to cut it to the size
of your block. So let me cut my little selvedge edge off here. And let’s look at the size
this one is supposed to be. So it’s a 1 ½ by 8 ½ rectangle to both sides. When I
do that I’m going to cut them together because I know I’m going to have two strips that
are going to be the same size on one side and two strips for the other. So stack your
strips like this. And then if you have my good little ruler, what I like to do is it’s
1 ½ by 8 ½ and actually I can’t do that with my little ruler because it’s only 7
½. So I’ll do it with the big ruler. And I like to go like this. So it’s 1 ½ right
here and I”m going to put it the 8 ½ right there. And I can see that it’s like a perfect
rectangle and then I’m just going to cut this once like this. And so I have two of
these for the sides and then the other side is going to be 1 ½ by 10 ½. So let me cut
those right now. Because each one of these little stars is getting a different little
border or a piece sewn on a side. So you want to look at that and what I did was look at
the legs. The orange legs get the pink border 1 ½ by 10 ½. Look twice, cut once. Alright
let’s sew these on. I’m going to add both my sides. And by the way this is the way you,
when you border a quilt, you do the same thing. You do the sides first and then your top and
bottom. Now if your star, if you notice that it’s a hair bigger like this, again you
could put that big side to the bottom. The big bottom to the bottom. I imagine there’s
going to be a few comments about that, the big bottom to the bottom. And then on this
side. And normally I would always put my sashings and my borders on the top but my block is
just a hair short. So this, adding these little borders like this will square up your block
if it’s just a little bit off. And I guess mine isn’t off once I lay it on there but
I try almost always to put mine on on the top. But if it feels a little bit bigger to
you then put your bigger piece on the bottom and it will square up your block. Alright
now what I’m going to do is press these back and then add the top and bottom to this.
The other thing I didn’t do that you might want to do is you might want to look at your
middle square and make sure that it’s oriented the same way when you sew those together.
Now to me, that doesn’t matter one tiny bit because I don’t care if my seams are
going this way or this way. When that block is in here nobody is ever going to look and
see if your seams go this way or this way. Nobody is. And so I didn’t look at that
at all. And I’m ok with that. But if that bothers you, that’s something you want to
make sure that you’re, you know, there are rule followers out there. And if you are a
rule follower you want to make sure that you are getting those on the right sides with
your four patch oriented in the right direction. I’m not even sure the colors in my four
patch are the right colors. I’m not worried about it. Sarah Cray, she’s a, she does
Let’s Make Art and she always says, I’m not mad about it. I love that. Alright so. Alright let’s take a look at the other blocks.
I’m going to have Misty press that. Our yellow legs right here, we have an inch and
a half piece across the bottom and the side. So see right here, across the bottom and the
sides. So our bottom piece again is going to be 8 ½ and we’re only adding one this
time. So I know my block is 8 ½ because I just measured the other block so 8 ½ right
here. Alright so I”ve got a 1 ½ by 8 ½ and then on this side it’s going to be 1
½ by 9 ½. So I”m going to cut that. And I’m going to stitch this to one side. And
let me see what side I’m supposed to stitch it to. There’s my purple up here in the
corner. I’m going to put it down here. Alright so I’m going to stitch this one here. Now
you want to watch on this. You’ll notice we’re sewing along the edge so you want
to watch if you lose your point. Oh I lost that one a tiny. That’s ok. That’s ok
with me. I’m not going to die over that. But you want to watch. And if you want to
watch and make sure that you come where those threads cross then you’ll put this one on
the other side. Alright so let me see now 1 ½ by 9 ½ make sure that’s right. 1 ½
by 9 ½. Yep that’s right. And so I’m going to put this on here and mine looks like
it’s going to be just a little bit big so I’m going to put it on this way which means
I’m going to be able to look at my points. So we’re going to start here. Let the feed
dogs do their work. I’ll keep kind of a firm hand on this top one. I’m going to
sew down here, watch to make sure I don’t lose my point. Perfect. Pretty sure those
are going to come out just, oh perfect. How did I do on that pink one? Did I lose any
points? Misty: It looks really good. There’s just
a couple that got cut off. Jenny: Don’t tell.
Misty: I won’t. Jenny: Just don’t tell.
Misty: Your secret is safe with me. Jenny: The secret is safe. Alright let’s
see. Are those the only two we sew the pieces on. It looks like I have the yellow legs.
Oh no the green legs get one on the top. So there’s my green legs and there’s my top
right here and this is going to be a 1 ½ by 8 ½. Let me make sure. From the 1 ½ inch
strip, 1 ½ by 8 ½. Alright. And I don’t know if you guys measure like this but this
makes so much sense to me visually to come along here and see my 1 ½ by 8 ½. And then
this is going to go on the top of this one. And I’m just going to sew and let me look
at my point. Let me see how much room I have here. You know what, I’m going to be golden
on this one. Let me make sure I’ve got enough. Alright now my top, my little strip is hanging
over a little bit so this is a little trick. I’ve sewn half. I’m going to flip it over
and sew the other half on the bottom because I want it to be exact. And again the feed
dogs will just take in that little extra. And let’s look at it and make sure. See
no fold, no pleat but that’s going to square up your block a little bit because maybe my
block was just a little shy. Alright so here’s that one. Green. Now the other one is the golden legs. Alright
so the golden one looks like it has no strips around it at all. But I’m noticing that
I have this 2 ½ inch piece right here still and so I’m looking. And look on our pink
one right here. So on the pattern you can see it has the 2 ½ on the bottom and another
white one on this side. So don’t miss that. So if you ever have extra fabric, you know,
take a look at those because it’s possible, you know, it could have been on there and
you not saw it. So I notice, I’m like wait a minute, I have this. So here it is on the
bottom of the pink one. So on this pink one now we’re going to add a strip over here.
And it looks like it should be 1 ½ by 10 ½. And the bottom one should be 2 ½ by 11
½. So let’s cut this one, 1 ½ by 10 ½. And now if you were to happen to cut this
wrong, let’s say you made a mistake and cut it an inch short, what could you do? You
could actually sew these pieces back together and recut it. You don’t have to die because
you don’t have a piece. Don’t you know, if you have to do a little extra cut just
don’t die over that. I mean, you know, if you have a little extra seam in there, that’s
probably one of my favorite things about antique quilts is when they made a mistake or they
didn’t have enough fabric, they would make tiny little seams to make that piece fit.
I don’t mind that one bit. Alright, let me see. But I don’t want to cut it wrong
so let me look again. 2 ½ by 11 ½. But if you did, let’s just say, if you did and
you had to put a tiny seam in this one, you know, to make, to make the seam long enough
nobody is going to see that. Nobody is going to see it. Alright 2 ½ by 11 ½. Alright.
So this one we’re going to put on the side of this. I’m so glad I noticed that 2 ½
inch strip. And we’re going to, I’m going to go ahead and flip this over and do it on
the bottom. It’s not that it’s too long, it looks like it fits but it looks like it’s
got a little bit of wiggle room. Oh I didn’t look to see if I’m putting it on the right
side. Let me look. Let me look here. We’re on this side. Here’s our pink over here.
Nope I’m putting it on the wrong side. Oof, there we go. Now, so it goes on this side.
Let’s make sure. Again I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t have mattered but, you know,
I”m trying to do my best for you guys. I’m such a shoot from the hip sewer. Like, it’s
all going to be fine. It’s going to be fine. And I’m trying to follow the directions
and read the pattern. You know, you know me I’m just doing my best. Alright let’s
see how this one is going to fit on here. Oh that one is going to be perfect. Alright
so now I”m going to sew this one, wait let me make sure it’s on the right side. Pink
at the top, this one. Yep. First time, right side. I love it when a plan comes together.
And again these little borders when you’re making your block, these little borders are
important to do now because when you go to put the quilt together it’s going to say
put this one here and this one here. So look how pretty this is. Alright, let’s
see how they work in the quilt. Here’s our gold one, here’s our green one, here’s
our yellow legs and here’s our little bordered one with the pink right here. And so here’s
our big one right up here in the corner. And you don’t have to worry about where they
go yet for real because we’re just going to put them in a pile and we’ll put all
those together in month 11. And so we’re going to put some extra comments on to try
and answer some of your questions, give you some more tips and tricks. So watch that Facebook
group. Join that if you’re not a part of that because that’s a really, it’s a fun
group, great, great quilters on there. Lots of good ideas and it’s fun to see what everybody
is doing and all the different fabrics. So thanks for joining us for the All Stars
Block of the Month, month two and we will see you next time.
