Modern Art Quilters - Patterns and Tutorials

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Modern Art Quilters Free Tutorial - Friendship Star Blocks
These instructions are for regular, easy, beginners' blocks and are useful for all sorts of projects This block's instructions assume a degree of accuracy - if you find that this is beyond your skills or those of your machine, check your seam allowances carefully You need:- Cotton fabrics. Blocks should finish at 6-1/2 inches trimmed, for 6 inches when sewn into a quilt Fabrics should always be well-pressed before cutting Square ruler at least as big as your trimmed block size Cutter and mat Pencil Sewing machine (nothing fancy required) Cotton thread, please

				For one 6-1/2 inch block you need four 2-1/2 inch squares in your background colour Two 3-1/2 inch squares in each of your background and accent colour for half-square triangles and EITHER one more 2-1/2 inch back ground or one accent or one contrast square of 2-1/2 inches Samples are made in plains for clarity, but please make a note of the colours and or patterns required for the exchange All seams are made by putting the Right Sides Together and using a 1/4 inch seam. Pin if needed, but don't sew over your pins! See below for other sizes!

				Draw lines on the back of the fabric across your larger square, corner to corner, and 1/4 inch either side. Use pencil
				Sew, right-sides together, on the outer lines, and cut the two parts along the centre line (shown both sides). Use a matching or neutral thread and a smallish stitch as we are going to trim these
				Press to set the seam, from the darker side, then open the block without moving it from the board, and press firmly, making sure there are no little crinkles along the seam
				Like so...
				Trim to exactly 2-1/2 inches with your ruler and cutter. If you can't or don't do rotary cutters, mark using a pencil and cut neatly on the line with scissors Now, this looks wasteful, but it's sooo much easier to trim a bit more off than a sliver, and I know you aren't short of fabric. Of course, as you get better at this, you can start with slightly smaller squares, maybe 3-1/4 inches (Note, many of the online sites say "add 7/8 to your finished size for perfect HSTs". Yes, if you are very accurate, but you still have to trim off the "ears". I always make oversize and trim)

				Trimmed. Look how tidy! Make two pairs for each block...
				Lay out your block into its correct order like so. Note the direction of the points, they should rotate nicely all in the same direction. For exchanges, please do them this way round...
				Sew the rows together
				Press the top and bottom rows outwards and the central one inwards
				Sew the rows together and press both seams to the middle. This allows for "nesting" seams when your blocks are sewn together CHECK the size when you have made your first block, if it is too big or too small you need to check your seam allowances and adjust as required
				Watch your points for best results - note that the point does not reach the raw edge - if it does you will lose it in the seam. Pin and look...
				You can add a third colour; use the accent colour in the middle; or make a "hollow" star with the background fabric in the middle... And scrappy is fun too...
				For three-inch blocks (quite fiddly) the smaller squares are 1-1/2 inches cut, the HST squares 2-1/2 inches... Three 3-inch blocks will sit nicely alongside one 9-inch block, or two against a 6-incher. Or two sixes against a twelve... Modular!
				Contrast is good, but don't be afraid to play... Nine-inch block - smaller squares cut to 3-1/2 inches, HSTs to 4-1/2 inches
				Twelve-inch block (too big for my tastes) but you can use multiples together for a good effect. For this one I made stripes on the star points from my scrap bag and fussy-cut the centre Start with 4-1/2 and 5-1/2 inch squares...
				Play with colour placement...
				Add more half-square triangles, perhaps
				And, should you have a desire to drive yourself ever-so-slightly batty, CLICK HERE to download a .pdf pattern for 1-1/2 and 1 inch FPP stars... (Rotary cutter for scale, I'm all out of bananas