Hive 2- February Tutorial -Charming Stars Block

 Hi All!

Thanks for joining me for the month of February!

This month's block will be based off of this block found on the Moda website. The original free pattern is called Charming Squares.

For this month's block, I am looking for a starry sky. It uses charm squares or 5 inch squares cut from yardage and smaller squares for the star's points.

Fabric Selection:
For February's block background, I'm looking for dark to medium blues...think navy to dusty blue. I would ask that the blues read as a solid blue. Please no novelty prints. Leaves, floral, dots, and stripes are all fine. If you have batiks, feel free to use those as well. Please use at least 4 different types of blue fabric to give it a scrappy look.

For the star portion of the block, I'm hoping for creams...again that read as a solid. If there's white or tan as a design in the cream, that will work great. Please use creams that read the same value for the star centre and points.

See picture below for an example of my fabric selection.

Cutting Directions:

For this block you will need:
[  ] 8 Navy/Dark Blue/Medium Blue 5 inch squares (for the blue background/sky)
[  ] 1 Cream 5 inch square (star centre)
[  ] 8 Cream 2 7/8 squares (star points)

Block Assembly:
1. Layout 5 inch squares as a 9 patch with your Cream block in the centre.

2. Snowball the centre blues to make the star points. I started with the right sides of the corners. I then did all of the left corners.

 

 

 

 

Draw a line directly on the back of the 2 7/8 squares from corner to corner. Line it up with the right corner of the 5 inch blue square. Sew on the line. Cut off the corner at least 1/4 from the sewn line. Press your seam open to ensure a flat block.

Repeat for all of the other right corners. Then, repeat with the left corners.

Trim these squares to ensure they are 5 inches.

3. Layout the block to ensure you're happy with the overall look of the block. I like to double check that my blues aren't the same beside each other and that there is an even distribution of colour/value.

4. Sew block together as you would a nine patch. I like to press the seams away from the star point blocks to prevent bulkiness. For the horizontal seams, I like to press my seams open for a nice flat block.

The block should finish at 14 by 14. Please leave it untrimmed.

That's all for now! Thanks so much for taking the time to make this block...I hoped you enjoyed it!