Hive 3 July Tutorial - Flag Star Block

Flag Star Block

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all having a great summer so far.

For July, I have chosen a patriotic block.  

I found this block on the Blue Feather Quilt Studio blog.  

Fabric selection is easy.  You will need a small piece of blue fabric, and red and white fabric.  I have not included any pictures because for me anything goes (e.g., floral, stripes, dots, solids). The background is white, but you can use low volume whites if you want to as well.  I used a white print on white fabric for my background.

Cutting instructions:

• 1 - 3 1/2" blue square
• 1 - 2" x 3 1/2" red rectangle
• 1 - 2" x 6 1/2" red rectangle
• 8 - 3 1/2" red squares
• 1 - 2" x 3 1/2" white rectangle
• 1 - 2" x 6 1/2" white rectangle
• 4 - 3 1/2" white squares (these are not shown in the pictures)
• 4 - 3 1/2" x 6 1/2" white rectangles

Sewing:

• All seam allowances should be 1/4".
• I am not picky about how you press your seams.  Do it as you would do your own.

Block Center:

• Sew both sizes of red and white rectangles together on the long edges.
• Sew the short red and white rectangles to the blue square.  (See image below.)
• Sew the blue square and red and white rectangles to the longer red and white rectangles. (Again, see photo below.)

Flying Geese:

• Draw diagonal lines, corner to corner, on the wrong side of the red 3 1/2" squares. (It's hard to see my line in the picture below.)
• Place a red square on top of the white rectangle, with right sides together.
• Sew on the line.

    

• Trim away the excess corner, leaving 1/4" seam allowance from the stitched line.
• Press open.
• Repeat on the opposite side, placing the square with the diagonal as shown below.

• Sew on the line.
• Trim the excess corner and press open.
• Make a total of 4 flying geese units.  They should measure 3 1/2" x 6 1/2".

Sewing Rows:

• Row 1: Sew one 3 1/2" white square on each side of a flying geese unit.

Row 2: Sew one flying geese unit to each side of the center flag unit.  (I forgot to take a picture of this, so I am putting in the picture of the completed block for reference.)

Row 3: Sew one 3 1/2" white square on each side of a flying geese unit.

Block completion:

• Sew the rows together as shown below.
• The finished block should measure 12 1/2".  Don't worry about trimming it.

And there you have it.  My first ever tutorial.  I hope the instructions were easy enough to follow.

Happy Fourth Hive 3!!!

Cathy