Double Delight 4

Quiltville Custom Quilting
http://www.quiltville.com

Double Delight!

~A Quiltville Mystery Quilt~

©Bonnie K Hunter 2008
Part 4!

(Click here for printer friendly version)

The Rolling Star Block!

It's time to put the units together!

Don't you just love this block?! It looks so complex,but it is made with our two simple units, the square in a square (in two different shadings) and a 9 patch in the center! You will be making 30 Rolling Star blocks. One thing that makes this block a bit more tricky to assemble is the fact that when you join square in a square to another square in a square you have no butted seams that can help with proper placement. All those points NEED to be pinned.

In my many years of quilting (28 to be exact!) I've found that certain methods of pinning work better than others. It used to be that you could take a HUGE yellow headed "quilters" pin, jab it through both points, point the pin down and through all layers, and sew. But you know what? Those huge pins distort the fabric. And if you pin right IN the points, it pushes one layer up or down and after sewing you find your points no longer match.

I want to show you how I pin! And what better way to do that than to con my DH into filming me! I hope you can see in this little video well enough to get the jist of it. I use small pins for my patchwork matching, saving the big quilter's pins for pinning quilts into the quilting machine. Elsewise it's like trying to match points with 10-penny nails!

And because videos don't print out, here are some still shots to help you as well:

Step 1: Run a pin through both points with units right sides together. Align upper edges of units even with each other.
Step 2: Holding first pin in place, take a second pin and pin through all layers just next to the first pin.
Step 3: Remove first pin. All layers are secured by second pin,
Step 4: Sew!

Block Layout!

Layout the units as shown. Use the pinning method above to match the points as you sew units in a 9 patch format, sewing the units into rows, and then joining the rows to form each block, pressing seams towards the 4 corners with the blue center squares. (Away from the browns)
Make 30 blocks.

Don't they look just great?!?

Click here for Part 5!