Welcome to September! Here in the Texas Panhandle we've had nice rains earlier this year, followed by a warm summer. Across the prairie you can find the most beautiful wildflowers this year. Here are a couple of photos that I have chosen for the inspiration of this month's block.
We'll be making a Prairie Flower block inspired by a quilter I very much admire, Joanne Brozinski. And we'll be using the pattern Scrappy Star Quilt Block.
Joanne used all sorts of fabrics for her blocks. The central star "flower" would be a kind of scrappy look with the entire flower sewn of different shades/prints of a related similar color. So, if you have oranges, you'd choose any complementary shades/prints of oranges from your stash. Each star can be any of the bright colors as suggested from my fabric pull below:
The background fabric for the block can be any number of low value fabrics, even very small nature inspired novelty prints. What I'm looking for is a contrast between the background and the brighter, central star "flower". They can be soft, floral prints with pastel, white or very, pale ivory background. Please no tans. I really like the variety of soft prints that Joanne used. You probably have some fabrics in your stash that will work just fine. Here are some of the fabrics I pulled from my stash:
Directions for cutting and sewing the block:
The block measures 12 1/2″ square, and will finish to 12″. You may find that a "scant" 1/4" seam will be useful to have your block measure to 12 1/2". You will need:
- 8 – 2″ squares {star/flower fabric}
- 1 – 3 1/2″ square {star/flower fabric}
- 8 – 2″ x 5″ rectangles
- 4 – 5″ squares
- Draw a line (on the back side of the fabric) diagonally across all the 2″ squares. I like to use a water soluable pen, then I can spray the marks away with distilled water before ironing.
- Place the marked squares on one end of each of the 2″ x 5″ rectangles. Half of the diagonal lines should point left to right, the other half right to left {as shown in the image below}. Stitch along the lines.
- Measure 1/4″ from the line toward the short end of the rectangle…
- …and trim the corners away.
- I like to press four of the corners toward the 2" square and the other four pressing toward the rectangle. This will allow you to "nest" the seams when you sew the sets together, as shown below.
- Sew the rectangles together in pairs with the point of the printed fabric in the center.
- Press the seams open to reduce bulk. (In this photo you can see how the triangle seams are pressed in opposite directions as mentioned in step #6 from above.)
- Repeat until all the star points are sewn. Arrange the points and 5″ squares around the 3 1/2″ square as desired and sew them together into three rows.
- I pressed my seams for the top and bottom rows toward the 5″ squares, and for the center row towards the 3 1/2″ square. This will allow your seams to nest nicely. When sewing the points to the 3 1/2″ square, I like to sew with the point fabric on top {still right sides together} so I can stitch right through the center where all the colors meet. In the photo below I have marked where I want sew so that I don't lose the "point".
- Join the three rows together in the same manner. I pressed the top and bottom rows toward the center. Now you’ll have the finished star.
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