Tricia's Favorite Block Tutorials -- Block 7 OHIO STAR

Hello Again, Dear Friends!

I hope everyone is having fun with these quilt block tutorials.  In case I didn't mention it before, I plan to do 12 block tutorials and then I will do a tutorial on putting the 12 blocks together into a throw-sized Sampler Quilt!  So stick with me and you'll have a pretty nifty quilt when we're all done.

Here are the links for the first 6 blocks if you're just joining us:

1.  Shoofly

2.  Courthouse Steps

3.  Flying Geese

4.  Rail Fence

5.  Electric Fan

6.  Eccentric Star

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's jump right into our next block: 

OHIO STAR

  Did you know the Ohio Star Quilt Block is connected to John Brown, the abolitionist??????  

Hop over to Suzy Quilts to read more.

 

Here's what you need for one 12" (finished) block.

Dark Fabric:  1 square 5 1/4" x 5 1/4", cut on both diagonals to yield 4 triangles

Medium Fabric:  2 squares 5 1/5" x 5 1/4", cut on both diagonals to yield 8 triangles

Light Fabric:  1 square 4 1/2" x 4 1/2"

Background Fabric (white):  4 squares 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" and 1 square 5 1/4" x 5 1/4", cut on both diagonals to yield 4 triangles

Let's Sew it Together! 

1.  Sew a light triangle to a dark triangle.  Make 4.

2.  Sew a background triangle to a medium triangle.  Make 4.

3.  Sew the units from steps 1 and 2 together to make an Hourglass unit.  Make 4.

4.  Sew a unit from step 3 together between 2 white squares.  Make 2. 

5.  Sew a light square between 2 units from step 3.  Make 1. 

6.  Sew the rows together into an Ohio Star block.  SEW SIMPLE!

That wasn't too hard, was it????

Stay tuned for our next Block Tutorial in a couple weeks.

Know a friend who might enjoy this tutorial?  Please share.

Tricia's Favorite Block Tutorials -- Block 4 RAIL FENCE

If you missed the first 3 blocks in my Favorite Block Tutorial series, here they are:

Block 1 -- Shoofly

Block 2 -- Courthouse Steps

Block 3 -- Flying Geese

Now that you're all caught up, let's make Block 4 -- RAIL FENCE.  Rail Fence was one of the first quilt blocks that I ever made.  Mine only had 3 strips whereas this block has 4 strips in each section.

As you know, I like to add a bit of Quilt History to my Block Tutorial posts.  Have you ever wondered where the names for quilt blocks came from?  I have always found this subject fascinating.  Blocks were named for people, special events, political figures and events, common everyday things and activities -- just about anything you can imagine! 

Have you ever noticed that quilt blocks can have a lot of different names, though?  I find that even more fascinating because people in different places were creating the same quilt blocks and calling them something different, based on their own experiences. When quilt block names were published in magazines and newspaper, even more names were added to the list.  For example, look at the Churn Dash block.  It is also known as Monkey Wrench, Puss in the Corner, Love Knot, Hole in the Barn Door, Sherman's March, Indian Hammer, Fisherman's Reel, and several other names.

If you find this as interesting as me, you might want to check out Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  It is an amazing resource with thousands of pieced quilt blocks, their names, and even the publications they appeared in.  It can be hard to find, so if you are an Electric Quilt user, you should invest in BlockBase, which is a digital version of Barbara Brackman's book.  BlockBase doesn't include all the blocks in the book, but it does have a great selection.

Sew, let's get started on Block #4 -- Rail Fence.

 For a 12" finished block, you will need the following:

4 background rectangles 2" x 6 1/2"
4 light rectangles 2" x 6 1/2"
4 medium rectangles 2" x 6 1/2"
4 dark rectangles 2" x 6 1/2"

(For this block I chose to go with a monochromatic color scheme, but you can make this block as scrappy as you want because anything goes.)

1.  Sew a background, light, medium, and dark 2" x 6 1/2" strip together.  Make 4 units.

2.  Sew the 4 units together into a 4 Patch block, turning units as shown.

And that's it!  This a great beginner block, but it has a lot of possibilities for more experienced quilters, too.

 

Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

 

 

Local Quilters in the Same Publication!

Dang!  I ruined my streak of writing a weekly blog post last week.  Oh well, I'm going to get myself back on track.

I just had to share this awesome story with you.

Recently, I received my author copy of the book, Farmhouse-Style Quilting, which is a compilation of the work of many quilt designers.  The book was created by Annie's Quilting.

 To buy your own copy of the book, go HERE.  It is available as a book or an ebook.


I was fortunate to have 2 projects accepted for the publication --

Red-Letter Day Place Mats p.9

and

Wash Day p. 29

My Wash Day Quilt made the front cover of the publication.  If you look closely at the wooden crate under the bench, you can see my quilt peeking out.  (Tehehe)

Wash Day was quilted by one of my favorite local long arm machine quilter's, the very talented Karen Shields of Karen's Quilting Studio.

The design for Wash Day came to me pretty quickly once I found the Moda collection Oxford by Sweetwater.  The fabrics reminded me of my Grandpa and his quilt, which I inherited after he passed away.  The quilt was made by his mother -- my great grandmother -- when he was a young man before he married my grandmother.  It is one of my most treasured items, even though it is faded and worn.  (I promise to add a photo of the quilt to this post when I get the chance.)

Here's the back of the book.  You can see both my projects there!

 

Anyway, another of the designs in the Farmhouse-Style Quilting book is by my friend and fellow designer, Cathey Laird.  You might know Cathey from her ruler, the Firefly Glow Y Block Ruler.  Cathey's design is called Country Stars Runner.

Okay, what's really neat is that another one of my friends and fellow quilters, Kristine Smith, also had a quilt featured in this book.  Her quilt is called Country Comfort and it was machine quilted by another friend, Debi Crocker.  Kristine's quilt is also on the back cover of the book.

As they say on info-mercials --

but wait -- there's more!

All five of us -- 

Karen, Cathey, Kristine, Debi, and me -- 

live right here in northwestern PA 

AND WE ALL BELONG TO 

THE SAME QUILT GUILD! 

Holy Guacamole, Batman!  Can you believe it???

Tricia's Favorite Quilt Block Tutorial -- Block 1 SHOO FLY

What's your favorite quilt block?

I have quite a few favorite blocks, actually.  Maybe you do too.

Most of the blocks that I am a fan of are quick and easy to make.  I really love quick and easy because then I can spend more time playing with my fabric.

I thought it would be fun to show you some of my favorite blocks and how to make them along with a few ideas on using them in your projects.  AND I will turn my favorite blocks into a SAMPLER QUILT so hold on to your blocks until the end of the series for a fun Sampler Quilt setting.

 I LOVE the Shoo Fly block.  

When I was a new quilter, I cut out bunches of squares and triangles and hand-pieced them, eventually having enough to make a twin-sized quilt.  To be honest, the quilt didn't turn out very well because I didn't know then what I know now about quilting, but the important thing was that it got me excited to make MORE QUILTS.

According to the website Quilting in America, the block was "named after a wild plant with domed flowers called clover broom or shoo-fly, this 9-patch block originated around 1850 and became popular in the late 1800s."  For more history of the Shoofly block, visit Quilting in America.

Let's make a 12" finished Shoo Fly block!

What you need:

Medium/Dark fabric -- 2 squares 4 7/8" x 4 7/8" and 1 square 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" 

Light Fabric -- 2 squares 4 7/8" x 4 7/8" and 4 squares 4 1/2" x 4 1/2"

Here's what you do:

1.  Layer a 4 7/8" medium/dark square right sides together with a light 4 7/8" square.  Draw a line from one corner to the opposite corner diagonally.

2.  Sew 1/4" away from both sides of the drawn line.

3.  Cut apart on the line.   Voila!  You have 2 half square triangle blocks (HSTs).

4.  Repeat steps 1-3 to make a total of 4 HSTs.

Now here's the easy part -- the Shoo Fly block is simply a 9 Patch block in disguise!  Tehehehe!

5.  Sew a light 4 1/2" square between 2 HSTs as shown.  Make 2 rows.

 

6.  Sew a medium/dark 4 1/2" sqaure between 2 light 4 1/2" squares.  Make 1 row.

 

7.  Sew the row from step 6 between the rows from step 5, flipping the unit on the bottom to make a Shoo Fly block.

 

And there you have it -- one 12 1/2" Shoo Fly Block!  Yay!  Go you!

Fall Quilt Market in Review Part 2

Isn't it typical that Quilt Market was a month ago and I'm still working on blogging about it?  LOL!

On Saturday and Sunday of Market, the show floor was open as was the quilt display.  If you've never been to Market, it's hard to describe what the show floor looks like.

Here are a couple photos taken through the porthole windows on the second floor:

The show floor is MASSIVE!  Filled with every quilt goody known to humankind.  Thank goodness the aisles are numbered or else you might get lost.  There were 22 aisles and each aisle is divided in half with a central wide aisle running through.  The show floor is so overwhelming but in a good way!

Since I didn't have any appointments or meetings scheduled, I was free to wander to my heart's content.  Which I did.  Of course, I checked in with many friends and met a lot of new friends too.  I stopped at C&T Publishing, Villa Rosa, and others just to say hi.

At C&T, I actually made an appointment to sit down and talk to the acquisitions editor, Roxanne, so that I could pitch a couple of book ideas to her.  Really, I didn't go to Market to pitch a new book idea, but I went prepared just in case.  (Well, hey, I was a Girl Scout, you know.)

Anyway, here are some things I saw on the Show Floor that I found photo-worthy:

Saturday was an exhausting day!  Then Saturday night, I went with my shop owner friend Shirley to the Moda dinner, which is always a good time.

On Sunday, I had the chance to check out the quilt display which by the way is in the other half of the first floor of the conference center!  I am sad to say that I only made it through about 3/4 of the quilt displays, but WOW -- the displays were amazing.....incredible......even breath-taking!

Here are a few teasers for you:

One of my absolute favorite things to do at Market is to participate in book signings.  I really love to meet authors and it's fun to help them celebrate their books.  Here's my favorite photo from the book signings I was lucky enough to attend -- can you guess who????

Eleanor is doing great!  She looked wonderful and was so very gracious.  I am thrilled for her that she's celebrating her 40th anniversary for Quilt in a Day.  Did you know that they updated her first book, Make a Quilt in a Day Log Cabin?  Click HERE to get your own copy!

Stay tuned for some book reviews for the books I discovered at Market.

To revisit Part 1 of my Fall Quilt Market in Review posts, click HERE.