One Piece at a Time

Feathered Star Lesson 6: Bias Strip Piecing

One really great way to piece all your feathers for this block is what Marsha McCloskey calls Bias Strip Piecing. This is a very handy because you press all the seams open before you cut your feathers so there are no burnt fingers. Her ruler is very handy as well. You can find it here.

To make the feathers for the 18 ½” feathered star you will need to cut two 13 ½” square of fabric. Cut one from your feather fabric and one from your background fabric. Place these squares on top of each other right sides together as shown.

Using a rotary cutter and long ruler cut along the diagonal of both squares. From this cut measure and cut strips 2” wide in both directions as shown.

These strips are then sewn together along the long side of the cut as shown.

The seams are pressed open.

Sew the strips together as shown, pressing the seams open as you go. Start by sewing the long strip sets together, then the medium and then the short.

To cut the feathers turn the strips right side up. Line the ruler up with the diagonal line as shown and cut out a 1 ½” x 1 ½” square.

To trim the other side, turn feather around and cut as shown.

Cut all the points along the lower edge. After you have cut off the bottom row of feathers you can cut the next row as shown.

Trim these as shown.

When you are done you will have all the feathers you need, already pressed. Hopefully no BURNT FINGERS.

Note: when cutting the bias strips you will end up with two corners. Sew along the diagonal of these squares and press the seams open. These can be cut in a similar fashion to make more feathers if needed.

Feathered Star Lesson 5: Putting it All Together

Now we should have four corner units, four side units and one center. These go together much like any nine patch with the exception that there is a partial seam. So, here we go.

First let’s construct our sides. Start with one of the Triangle side units as shown. I like to pin the partially sewn triangle out of the way so I don’t accidentally catch it when I sew the corner unit on.

 

Take one corner unit and pin it as shown.

Sew all the way along that side and lightly press the seams as shown.

Next you will need to fold the block as shown, pin and sew.

The finished side will look like this.

You will then attach the other corner unit to the other side in the same fashion. Make two of these sides.

To make the center you will need to attach a triangle side unit to the center portion as shown.

Do this with two triangle side units and lightly press in the following way.

Now, to sew the block completely together you just need to do this same partial seam method along the long sides. First, pin and sew as shown.

Then finish the partial seams in the same way that you did when you were constructing the side units. Once you have done this with both sides you are DONE. Give yourself a little pat on the back and go have a cup of tea and some cookies. You deserve it.

Feathered Star Lesson 4: Making Corner Unit

To make the Corner units of your feathered star you will first need to attach some more of those small background triangles (1 7/8”x 1 7/8” square cut on diagonal) to the diamond star points. There will be four in each orientation as shown.

I lay out the units before I sew to get the right orientation

I have to be careful when I sew...sometimes things get sucked into the machine...might be my machines problems but I doubt it

All finished

After you have made these diagonal units you will need to make your short side feather units as shown.

Finished short side

Back of the short side

These short side units are attached to one side of the corner square as shown.

Next you will need to make the long side feather units as shown.

This unit is attached to the corner triangle like this.

And TA DA here are your 4 corner units.

Tomorrow we will put it all together. Yeah!

Feathered Star Lesson 3 : Finishing the Triangle Side Unit and Making the Center

 
 

First off I have to tell you guys the exciting news. Yesterday I got a comment on my Feathered Star tutorial from Marsha McCloskey. Yep, that’s right, THE Marsha McCloskey, as in author of the book Marsha McCloskey. She pointed out that if you use her bias cutting method to make your feathers there is MUCH less pressing (and finger burning) going on. I will demonstrate this method on Monday, you guys are going to LOVE it. The other good news is that there is going to be a new Feathered Star book out in April and she has a new ruler for making these tricky sizes easier to cut. I put a link to her website up in the right side bar. It’s a great site, especially if you are a feathered star junkie like me.

So, let’s finish our triangle side units.

Now that we have out feathers attached to the side triangles we need to attach the kites.

The first kite can just be sewn on as shown.

The second kite needs to have a center triangle sewn on. This triangle is made by cutting a 2 ½ x 2 ½ square and then cutting it again along the diagonal. These are also the triangles that get sewn to the octagon to make the center.

Here is how it goes

This kite then gets sewn onto the first piece as shown.

Make sure you haven’t butchered any points.

Now it’s time to make the center.

To make the center you will need to start with the octagon you cut in lesson 1. You will also need to cut 4 center triangles the same size as the last step. These are attached as shown.

A note to all you appliqué addicts out there: Don’t worry this pretty little star is going to get some flowers appliquéd on SOON. Seriously, I wouldn’t leave that out.

Feathered Star Lesson 2: Making the Triangle Side Units

Welcome back intrepid quilters.

First, some cutting guidelines:

Square size for cutting kites is 4 7/8”

The large triangle that feathers are attached to are cut from a 8 7/8” square. Cut once along each diagonal for 4 triangles.

The small triangles that get attached to the feather units are cut from 1 7/8” square. Cut along the diagonal once.

To start with I like to lay out my pieces to get an idea of the order.

The first step is to sew three feathers and one plain triangle together to form the first feather unit as shown. Be sure to remember to PRESS YOUU SEAMS OPEN after attaching each feather.

 

Here is a picture of the back

The next step is to sew four feathers and one plain triangle together to form the second feather unit. The first two feathers go together as shown.

Check to make sure the seams line up before proceeding.

The second triangle unit should look like this

And on the back like this

The next step is to attach the first feather unit to the triangle side. I find it useful to pin at this point. Another important thing is that this will be a PARTIAL seam. Here we go.

Pin

Sew

Stop at the right spot (somewhere in the middle of the third feather)

 

Check to make sure you didn’t butcher any points

To attach the second feather unit start by pinning.

Sew until the right spot (somewhere in the middle of the fourth feather)

Check to make sure you haven’t butchered any points

The front should look like this

And the back should look like this

Make four of these and you will be ready for tomorrow’s lesson where we will make the corner units.

The Winner and Feathered Star Lesson 1: Old Fashioned Piecing

First the winner of yesterdays give-away is Deborah

She said

“I made my first quilt with the help of my grandmother when I was a pre-school age child. I took my first quilt class in 2005 and have been hooked ever since.”

Congratulations Deborah, your e-mail is on its way. If you don’t get it post a comment here and we will figure something out.

Feathered Star Lesson 1: Old Fashioned Piecing.

For making feathered star quilt blocks there is probably no better reference than Marsha McCloskey’s book “Feathered Star Quilt Blocks:1”. You can find it at her website www.marshamccloskey.com or I have it in my Amazon Store (see right side bar). I think the best one to learn to make is the 18.5” finished block. It has a lot of pieces but none of them are so tiny that you will get super frustrated.

A couple of things before we start: It’s a good idea for your thread to match your background fabric because the “feathers” are pressed…gasp…OPEN so there is a greater likelihood of your thread showing. Also, I like to use the Quilt-in-a Day Triangle Square Up Ruler to make my feathers. I’ve found that I’m much more accurate doing it this way. The one drawback is that when you press your feathers open you have to get your fingers a little close to the iron…but hey, if you’ve been following my appliqué tutorials you should have tough fingers by now. I did a tutorial on this ruler back in my early blogging days (6 months ago) and you can find it here (you might need to scroll down a bit).

Once I have decided on my fabric choices I cut things out. The triangles and squares are pretty straight forward. For the kites the first thing you do is cut a square the recommended size. Then cut it once across the diagonal. To get the kite shape you line up the diagonal with one edge of your ruler. The point of the diagonal should be the length of the side away from the end of the ruler (4 7/8” in this case). Cut off that little triangle and there’s your kite. Don’t forget you need eight.

Cut along the diagonal to start the kite

Measure 4 7/8" along diagonal and cut to make kite

Your kite should look like this

For cutting octagons you start with a 6 1/8” x 6 1/8” square. You will need to cut off the corners to form the octagon. I make a mark ¾” along two sides and draw a line. This line will be where you cut to get your octagon.

Make a mark 1 3/4" from this corner

Make another mark 1 3/4" from the same corner along the adjacent side

Draw a diagonal line and cut along this line

Repeat on remaining corners

For cutting the diamond on the end of each star point you need a strip of fabric 1 ½” wide. Cut off one corner off this strip at a 45˚ angle. From this cut edge measure 1 ½” up and line the straight edge up with the ruler 45˚ line as shown. This cut will give you the diamond. Don’t forget you need eight of these too.

Use 45 degree marks on ruler to get the best results

To make my feathers I cut a 4” square of both my feather fabric and my background fabric. I mark two diagonal lines and sew ¼” inch on each side of both lines. From here I cut along each diagonal and 2” in from each side. This will give you 8 feather units. To square up the feathers I use my handy dandy ruler to make each unit 1 ½” x 1 ½”. I turn the feather around and cut off my points. To complete just press the seams open. (I have more pictures in this post)

Sew 1/4" from each diagonal line

Square should look like this before you cut it up

Align 1 1/2" mark on ruler to seam and trim, turn around to cut off corners using same ruler line

Press seams open

Be as precise as you can with the feather step. It will be worth it later!

Tomorrow we will get started sewing things together.