Light and Bright- Star Points

Light and Bright, part two!

This quilt has 3 different blocks. Block C was revealed in THIS POST, as were my behind-the-scenes notes for adjusting the pattern. Block B will be shown along with the finished quilt in my next post. Blocks B and C were made according to directions.

But, I didn’t like the directions for how to make the stars in Block A. They had me cutting squares of different sizes, cutting all of the squares in half, cutting some of the squares in half again, and then sewing the triangles back together to make the star points.

I see two problems with this.

First of all, who wants to work with tiny little pieces? I would much rather work with bigger pieces, whenever possible. Some patterns don’t work that way, this happens to be one that does. Sew bigger pieces together first, turn them and then cut.

Secondly, what makes triangles tricky to work with, is sewing on the bias. Fabric has a weave to it. Working with the grain of fabric, or across the grain, is easiest. Working on the diagonal (the bias) is a little trickier because the fabric is stretchier.

Tiny pieces AND bias sewing? Not if I don’t have to!

Fortunately, others who have come before me have come up with sneaky tricks to minimize these frustrations.

These star points are made using a block called Flying Geese. This block is not a Flying Goose; I’ve never seen one goose on its own, have you? This block is called Flying Geese because they always come in pairs (or a gaggle!). This way of doing Flying Geese makes 4 geese.

You need 5 squares, one big and 4 small. In a Flying Geese block, the large square is the goose body, the small squares are the sky. For my stars, the large square (navy floral) is the background; the 4 small squares (white) are the star points.

I wanted my finished piece (remember, finished means once it’s sewn into the quilt and no edges are left unsewn) to by 2” by 4”.

To make Flying Geese this way, the large square needs to be your width dimension (4 inches) plus 1¼”, for a total of 5¼”. The smaller squares are your height dimension (2 inches) plus 7/8”, for a total of 2 7/8”. This added fabric accounts for the seam allowances (that’s the bit that gets sewn into the seam).

To make this star block, you’ll need:

1 Navy Square: 5 1/4”

4 White Squares: 2 7/8”

1 Navy Square: 4½” (block center)

4 Navy Squares: 2½” (block corner)

Draw a line with a pencil from corner to corner across the diagonal of your 4 white squares.

Take your 5 1/4” Navy Square and 2 of your 2 7/8” white squares, and place the white squares corner to corner across the diagonal of the navy square. The corners of the white squares will overlap in the center of the navy square, and the pencil lines will match up, to continue all the way from one corner across to the other. Pin in place

Sew ¼ of an inch to the right of the pencil line.

Trim the threads, turn the fabric pieces 180* and repeat, to sew down the other side of the pencil line. Because you’ve turned it, you will still be sewing to the right of the line. The pins are no longer necessary, but I’ve left them in place in my photo, so you can better see how the pieces of fabric have been turned.

Cut along the pencil line.

Iron the seam, pressing towards the smaller white pieces. It makes sort of a heart shape.

Pin your 3^rd and 4^th small white squares, to the remaining navy corner of each of your heart shaped pieces. The pencil line will go from the navy corner, and should go right through the V of the heart.

Sew ¼ inch from the pencil line, turn and sew ¼ inch from the pencil line on the other side.

Cut along the pencil line, and press, again towards the white.

Now you have 4 Flying Geese! Just to further clarify the Flying Geese idea, laying your 4 newly made rectangles out like this

is what the Flying Geese block looks like.

For our purposes, you are actually going to turn your 4 rectangles like this

to make star points!

Nifty, yes?

Using this layout,

sew 2 of your star point units to the center navy block, and sew 2 of the small navy squares to each end of the both of the remaining star point units. Press all seams towards the navy square.

Matching corner points, sew the 3 units together to create a star block!

Now, the pattern I’m working with calls for 6 stars that look just like this. But I’m a bit of a rebel; I made 2 of mine with a white center, instead of navy.

And there you have it! Stars and/or Flying Geese the super easy way!

The measurements again, for whatever size you want your finished pieces to be:

1 big square 1 ¼ inches plus the size of the finished width. (Geese bodies or star background fabric)

4 small squares 7/8 inch plus the size of the finished height. (Star points or sky for the geese)

My finished size was 2 inches by 4 inches. My navy square was 5 ¼ inches, my white squares were 2 7/8inches.