Hive 4 January Tutorial- Christmas Stars for Helen

 Hello everyone

Welcome to Hive 4 2021. I am Helen your Hive Mama for this year and I am very excited to tell you a bit about what I am currently working on and how you can all help me get this project finished.

But first a bit about me. I am a partner in a chartered accounting firm in Wellington, New Zealand, the capital city of my country and I live in Lower Hutt with my hubby, Steve and my two Schipperke dogs, Chloe (16) and Cassie (7). Lower Hutt is a city of 90,000 people a 20 minute drive from Wellington around the harbour. The greater Wellington area consists of 4 cities totaling 500,000 people.

I have two grown-up children and my hubby has three grown-up children and we have three grandchildren. Two of the grandchildren live in Australia. 2020 was a hard year for us: one of our dogs passed away with liver cancer at 15 during our April lock down, my father died in Australia in June and we were unable to go over and say goodbye and help my sister with arrangements, hubby had emergency eye surgery for a detached retina and then two months later needed a cataract removed in the same eye, my daughter was ill for 5 weeks (not covid) and my SIL had to have an operation also. However, despite all that, I am so grateful I live in New Zealand and we have managed to get on top of this terrible Covid 19 illness and keep our vulnerable citizens safe. If we had let it go through the population here, we would have had so many more deaths and severe illnesses and our hospitals would have been totally overwhelmed. My heart goes out to you all if you have suffered from this illness in some way.

I have been quilting for 9 years now and love it. I have a stash that I could open a shop with and enough WIPs to keep me occupied well past old age. I like trying new things and being challenged. I like traditional (think French General) and modern (think Carolyn Friedlander) and contemporary (think Anna Maria Horner and Tula Pink) fabrics and styles. I also like colour and solids and intricate piecing.

Now for my tutorial.

I started a Christmas themed saw tooth star quilt at the end of 2019 and I would sincerely love to have it finished by Christmas 2021!!

Here are some blocks I already made:

As you can see they are a variety of combinations of red and white with a tiny bit of other colour int he centre square and as an added bonus if you could fussy cut a Christmasy or cute motif for the centre square that would awesome. 

These blocks are 8 1/2 inches unfinished.

You need the following cuts:

- 1 x 4.5 inch square - fussy cut if you can

- 4 x 2.5 by 4.5 inch rectangles - background

- 4 x 2.5 inch squares same fabric as the rectangles - background

- 8 x 2.5 inch squares contrasting with the rectangle fabric - these are the star points

Scant quarter inch seams used throughout.

I am happy with whatever combination of red and white you choose, just make sure there is some contrast in the block. Here is the fabric pull I have and I have been making blocks from all sorts of combinations of these fabrics. They don't have to be specifically Christmas fabrics though.

Here is my sample block construction process:

1. selecting the three fabrics - see that cute centre

2. To make the 4 flying geese units draw the diagonal line on the 8 x 2.5 inch squares to sew the star points to the background rectangles or you can use the paper pieced method here:

www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/flying-geese.html

to get really accurate units - click on the 2 by 4 finished unit. 

3. The sewn line is just next to the drawn line to allow the fold over of the fabric

4. Trim the wing 1/4 inch from the sewn line

5. Press the red out to the corner as per below x 4

6. Attach the remaining 4 star point squares to the other side of the background rectangle and sew right next to drawn line just like in step 3 and trim like step 4.

7. Completed star points sewn and trimmed ready to press outwards.

8. Nicely laid out ready to sew the pieces together and see how it will look.

9. Press the seams in opposite directions as shown for the star points and the centre so they nest.

10. Make sure you sew the seam just next to the point of the seam as above.

7. All nicely pieced with a quarter inch of seam allowance so when the blocks are sewn together the star points are retained. Block should measure 8 1/2 inches square.

8. And the back of the block to show seam pressing directions.

Hope this all pretty straight forward - if you have any questions send me an email and happy sewing. If you need further instructions you can google saw tooth star - there are plenty of tutorials on line for you to follow if you need further assistance.

Helen