Try It on Tuesday: A Giveaway and A Pattern

A Guest Post from Kelli:

Everyone like a two for one right?  Of course right.  Well my friends, today is your lucky day!  Every Tuesday we have a Try it on Tuesday.  We like trying new things, reading new books, and testing new products.  Some times we keep the item, but sometimes we pass it on.

When talking to Mom this past weekend, we were talking about quilts that we have made that were our favorite.  When listing off mine, Smith Mountain Morning, Gingerbelle, and my American Patchwork and Quilting, as well as the Maverick Star Quilt that we made for Kayla’s wedding, I realized that they all have stars.  I have been working on a top secret project (don’t worry we’ll tell you about it eventually) that also uses stars and wanted to share with you my pattern for making the stars.  This pattern is my go-to for a 4″ finished star.  I often add a border and make it into a coaster for a quick present or pick-me-up for a friend having a bad day.

To make 1 star block, you will need 1-2.5″ colored square, 8-1.5″ colored rectangles, 4-1.5″ neutral squares, and 4-1.5″ x 2.5″ rectangles.

To start making your star block, you will need to place a 1.5″ colored square onto the corner of one of the 1.5″ x 2.5″ rectangles.  Sew diagonally across the colored square.  (Please forgive the lint/fuzz/dust)

Trim the corner and press from the neutral rectangle to the colored square–now rectangle.

Repeat on the opposite side of the rectangle.

It’s important to make sure that you are sewing the second square on correctly, so that you are creating a flying geese block.  Trim and press to the colored square, now triangle.

Repeat to create four flying geese blocks.  You can now layout your block.

Next, you will need to sew your block together into 3 strips–top, medium, and bottom.  When pressing, use the path of least resistance and press to the corner blocks on the top and bottom strips and press to the center 2.5″ square in the middle.  You can now assemble your block.  Pin and sew the top and bottom strips to the middle strip and WAALAA!  You now have a completed 4.5″ star block to finish at 4″.

To make your star into a coaster, you will need to add a border.  Cut two strips 1.5″ x 4.5″ and sew to opposite sides of the star block.  Press to the border.  Cut two more strips 1.5″ x 6.5″.  Attach to the other opposite sides of the star block.  Again, press to the border.

You can now baste, quilt, and bind your coaster.  I used a 2.5″ double fold binging which turned out a little bit bulky.  Hopefully I can talk mom into teaching me how to do a single fold binding to reduce the bulk in the future.

As I promised, today is a special Tuesday as we have another giveaway in store for you!  Marcus Brothers sent us to packs of fabric for their Just Judie quilt design contest that they are hosting to commemorate Judie’s 25th anniversary of designing fabric.

You can purchase a package of 26-8″ x 8″ at participating quilt stores to use as a base when designing your own quilt.  The package includes all of the rules and regulations of the quilt contest.  One neat thing is that each entry can only use fabric that has been designed by Judie Rothermel.  You can use each of the 26 squares to design a small wall hanging or add some other pieces that you may have in your stash to make a larger quilt.  Because Marcus Brothers so generously provided us with two packs of the fabric, we are going to be giving one away to a lucky reader.  Just leave a comment below telling us about a memorable moment for you in the past 25 years to have a chance to win your own sampling of Judie’s new 25th Anniversary line.