Hive #1 January Block Tutorial

Hello Hive 1 lovelies!

By now everyone knows that I am Alison, I am the Bee Mama for the Stash Bee and I live in MD with my husband and pet rabbit.

For my block, I'd like everyone to make classic sawtooth star blocks. My inspiration comes mainly from this quilt:

(original website here)

I love the look of the nestled stars and the mix of large and small stars together.

For my color scheme, here are my inspiration "tiles" (taken from Paper Source):

The "fig" is a wine red, not a true red, more like a burgundy, and the blues are true blues and not teals (please and thank you!)

Here's my original pull from my stash:

For all of the blocks, I'd like the outer background to be either light pink or light blue and the outermost start to have either fig or navy points. Inside the star, you can color your nestled stars or center squares however you wish. I'd like for everyone to make either one large 16.5" unfinished nestled star block or four medium 8.5" blocks sewn together into one 16.5" unfinished block.

Here's two examples of 16.5" nestled star blocks:

And here's an example of four 8.5" stars sewn together into one 16.5" block:

Here's the two test blocks that I made: (I have fabric for one more block cut out that isn't finished yet -- I will update this when I finish it!)

As far as a tutorial goes, the only thing you really need to know is how to make fast flying geese. A good tutorial is here.

Here's the basic star diagram and cutting directions for various sizes of stars. The construction is the exact same for all of the blocks, you'd just be using different sized squares to start. The B/C units are your fast flying geese units.

16.5 inch unfinished star:
A - cut four (4) at 4 1/2 inches square
B - cut four (4) at 4 7/8 inches square for fast flying geese
C - cut one (1) at 9 1/4 inches square for fast flying geese
D - cut one (1) at 8 1/2 inches square -OR- use 8.5 inch unfinished star

8.5 inch unfinished star:
A - cut four (4) at 2 1/2 inches square
B - cut four (4) at 2 7/8 inches square for fast flying geese
C - cut one (1) at 5 1/4 inches square for fast flying geese
D - cut one (1) at 4 1/2 inches square -OR- use 4 1/2 inch unfinished star

4.5 inc unfinished star (for all you overachievers!):
A - cut four (4) at 1 1/2 inches square
B - cut four (4) at 1 7/8 inches square for fast flying geese
C - cut one (1) at 3 1/4 inches square for fast flying geese
D - cut one (1) at 2 1/2 inches square

That's it! I am excited to see what everyone makes!

My question for the month is -- what is your biggest quilting disaster?

Mine is actually not my fault. I followed the cutting directions for a queen sized quilt so I cut TONS of fabric and then when I went to put the blocks together and realized that the directions were wrong and ALL of the triangles were cut too small. Crying and whatnot ensured. I ended up making a mini out of part of the fabric instead.