Modern BOM - Block 2 - Bordered Star

Happy Spring! What beautiful weather we've been experiencing. I hope to finish my work early today and get out to soak up some of this sunshine!

Our second block this month is called Bordered Star and I quite enjoyed it. There are a few segments to complete, but by just concentrating on one at a time you'll find it all comes together nicely in the end.

First, of course, is to cut all the pieces you'll need. I suggest you make a note on your pattern as to which fabrics are your Colour #1 - #5. This will help greatly in keeping everything organized. 

 

The first step is easy enough...actually none of the steps are difficult, it's just a matter of doing each step carefully. 

Here you can see I've sewn the 2 large squares together and sliced them on the diagonal...

I will be using two rulers that I find useful...keeping in mind that neither of them are necessary, you can easily complete the pattern with the technique you are familiar with. 

The first ruler I am using is the Bloc Loc, which I sometimes use for squaring up HST's. There is a slight "ledge" under the ruler that sits nicely on your seam. The trick to this ruler is to remember that the "letters" on the ruler, sit on the "lower" fabric (both start with the letter L)...

The next step is to snowball the corners...sewing on the dotted line that I have shown...

This is actually where I am using the second featured ruler, The Simple Folded Corner ruler. I quite like this ruler and use it whenever I can because it gives good results. Again, not necessary, of course, to use this ruler.

Next up is making flying geese. Again, this is where I sometimes will use my Simple Folded Corners ruler...and again, not necessary, but it does give good results. Make 4 flying geese using your background fabric and Colour #1

Then we make 4 more flying geese...being very careful about paying attention to your colour positioning.

This is the point that I will give you a little tip to have success at blocks with many different elements. Take the time to make sure each step results in an accurate size. For example, your flying geese should measure 2.5" x 4.5", unfinished.

Here I show all the segments of my block, ready to be sewn together...including 4 HST's...

Lay your units out carefully according to the picture in the instructions. 

Sew your flying geese units together, being careful of placement, as well as the centre HST's. For this I pressed my seams open to reduce bulk, especially since I am using Shweshwe fabrics, which are thicker than your normal quilting cottons. What you have now is basically a 9-patch to sew together.

And there you have it, a beautiful Bordered Star block! I really do like this block.

I did check with Lana at Quilt Junction...she does carry both rulers that I mentioned, although at the moment she only has a smaller sized Bloc Loc than what is needed for this block. I have no affiliation with the rulers, just passing on techniques that I find helpful. 

Please remember to post your blocks on Instagram if you can, using the hashtags #tqgmodernbom and #twilightquiltersguild. It's also nice to see a group picture of your blocks that we've done so far. 

From here on out we will go back to releasing one block per month. 

You can find the link to the instructions HERE at the blog post for the Twilight Quilters' Guild.

Modern BOM - March, block 1 - Starburst

Another new block already!

As stated before, we are doubling up on blocks a bit to fit the 12 blocks into 10 months. 

We will have a second block in March. Again, I figured this made sense as it's still not "sitting in the garden" weather, and we are still somewhat limited in going out and about as of yet.

This month is a paper-pieced block called Starburst...

I will be your cautionary tale...please check the size of the paper-piecing units in your photo copy...it should be 4.5". I have never had a problem with the sizing on a photo copy, so I just went ahead, and when I got to this stage of the block...

...my block measured 8" square, instead of 8.5". I checked back with my photo copy and the units only measured 4.25".

If you happen to make the same mistake as me, you can fix it easily. I just made the background strips wider. I cut them 3" wide and in the end just had to slice a sliver off the block to bring it to the required 12.5"...

In fact, maybe it's a good idea to make your background strips a little wider anyway in case your block comes out a bit wonky, then you can square it up nicely in the end!

Here are a few more tips for you...

When cutting the paper units apart, don't cut on the cutting line just yet, leave a bit extra all around as you can see marked in red in my picture. You will trim the unit to 4.5" once all the fabric has been sewn on....

Usually when doing a paper-pieced block you would leave the paper in until the whole block is pieced together. For this block I chose to remove the paper after the 4 units were completed. Up to you!

When it came time to sew 2 units together, there is a lot of bulk in the spot that will become the centre of your block. I found it especially so using the shweshwe fabrics that I am using as they are a bit thicker than regular quilting cotton. In this next picture you will see that the unit on the right has some wonky sewing where I've circled...

The circled area shows where my sewing machine struggled to get over the bulky bit.

I remembered a tip I'd heard for getting over the bulk of seams while hemming jeans. The tip was to get your presser foot propped up to the same level as what the bulk is. You can see in the picture below that I folded a piece of cardstock a couple of times and placed it under the presser foot. It worked like a charm, as you can see by the seam in the picture above that is not circled. I've been told that some machines do have a foot that helps for this sort of thing...for Pfaff it seems it's called a "hump jumper"!

When it came time to sew the final seam I couldn't figure out why I was having trouble getting over that last "hump"...then I figured it out...

....I'll take it as the sewing gods reminding me that it's been a very long time since I changed my needle.

I then proceeded over that final hump very carefully, manually making the stitches one by one, raising the presser foot and moving my block along with each stitch. Hopefully you won't have a probably if you are using regular quilting cotton, but do be careful.

And so I have my block finished. Of course, the white background strips are wider than they are supposed to be....but only you and I will know, right???

One last tip....if your centre doesn't turn out as well as you might hope, do what I would do, applique a circle over it and it will be beautiful. If you do choose to do that, maybe carefully snip away the bulky bit behind the applique. A little strategically placed applique cures all!

You can find the instructions HERE on the Twilight Quilters' Guild site. 

Remember to post your blocks on Instagram using the hashtags #tqgmodernbom, and #twilightquiltersguild. If you don't use Instagram but would like to share you can send a picture of your block to me and I'd be glad to do it. It's also nice once in a while to include a picture of all your blocks that are completed so far.

Have fun!