Happy Monday and welcome back to the Winter's Walk Quilt-Along!
It's Day 7 and today we're making a star block.
Doesn't sound too taxing, right? The catch is that it's an itty-bitty star block! The complete block will measure 3½" square unfinished, but the little Sawtooth Star within measures only 2". Sounds scary, but it's actually a piece of cake!
Day 7: Star Block
Here's the link for today's pattern sheet.
We'll be using our tried and true stitch-and-flip corners to make the points for today's star block. But what really makes this block manageable is that the background pieces are oversized and therefore give us a bit more fabric to handle. The most difficult part of this block is the unit C (step 6 on today's pattern sheet) — sewing 2 - 1" stitch-and-flip corners to a 1" x 1½" background rectangle. Be accurate with your marking and stitch directly on the marked line and you should be all set, but just in case, I've got two other tips that should help you to be successful:
1. Use a leader, or a small scrap of fabric, to start sewing on before you sew your stitch-and-flip seam. Start sewing on the leader and when you reach the edge of the scrap do not trim the threads, but instead continue on and sew the stitch-and-flip seam, just like when you chain piece.
2. Sew the stitch-and-flip seams from the edge of the rectangle, rather than the corner as illustrated below:
Using a leader and sewing from the edge can help prevent thread nests from forming behind your work and will also keep the little pieces from fraying at the edge or from being drawn into the needle hole. I've learned to use these techniques with all of my piecing, not just with miniature blocks, and it saves me a lot of time and frustration.
That's it for today. On Wednesday we'll begin assembling our quilt tops! So exciting!!
Happy Quilting!
—jen