Journey to Nebula Quilt Aong - Seaside - Assembly

Week 2 of the Journey to Nebula Quilt Along. This week we are to sew our Seaside diamonds that we cut out last week.  If you missed last week post of how I cut the diamond shapes out with my Studio 180 Design Star 60 tool, you can check out that post right here.  

Trimming the Tips:

Before we begin I want to show you how to trim the tips of the diamonds using your Star 60 tool.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Place the diamond on the mat so the diamond lays on its side. Position your Star 60 tool on the diamond so the 4 1/2" line sits on the bottom of the diamond.  Trim the tip off.

Next, rotate your unit 180° and place the Star 60 tool on the diamond once again, aligning the 4 1/2" lines again and trim the tip off.

Now your diamonds are ready to assembled together easily by just aligning with right sides together and assuring to align the tips to the other diamond.

Assembly

Note, I choose not to trim the tips of my diamonds, so the rest of this blog will show you how to stitch your SeaSide tablerunner together with the tips still on your diamonds.  

Start by laying out our diamonds into rows. Arranging the diamonds in the order of which I want the colors to be placed with the background colors in between.

After they were all laid out I started to sew the diamonds together.  I choose to sew my rows one at a time, by pairing two diamonds together at a time. Start by flipping one of the diamond on top of the other with right sides together.  Slide the tips of the diamonds roughly a 1/4" inch up so you can see the bottom diamond tips.  If you choose to remove your tips of your diamonds the alignment is a lot easier and you just align the edges right side together and start stitching.

Once the pieces are sewn, I then press the seams open with my iron. I like to use the hot steam to press those seams open.

Then continue sewing all our diamonds together to get 5 diamonds across. Remembering to overlap those tips slightly and to press the seams open.

The first row is now complete.

I laid each row out the way I want to sew them into the tabletopper.

Now, to sew the rows together I decided to sew two rows together at a time. I left all the dog ears on each of the rows because this help in lining up the diamonds.

Press each row's seams open.  Then assembled all the rows together.

Once all your blocks are together, we then cut the tips of the diamonds shaped off to square the tablerunner up.  Now all I have to do is to baste and machine quilt to finish it all up.

Next week, we start an all new pattern in the Journey to Nebula, I can't wait to see what Julie from Jaybird Quilts has in store for us.

Journey to Nebula Quilt Along - Seaside - Cutting Star 60 way

 

Are you participating in the Journey to Nebula Quilt Along that started today. I am but I'm doing this a little different from a lot of you, I'm using the Studio 180 Design Star 60 tool.  

I thought it would be fun to show you how easy it is to cut the pieces out with the Star 60 tool. The Star 60 tool will cut Diamonds, Hexagons, Half Hexagons used in the Journey to Nebula Quilt Along. One thing I love about the Studio 180 Design tools is that they are designed for Right and Left Handed Quilters, plus they can make multiple sizes. 

Today, we started with the Seaside pattern.  I will be showing you how I cut this out with the Star 60 tool.  For this pattern I will be using the Island Batik "Islander Batik" Collection from the Summer 2019 I had left over.   

I picked 5 different colors from the 2 1/2" Pre-cut strips I had in the package. 

From my background fabric, I cut 7- 2 1/2" strips from the WOF of the fabric.

Right Handed 

Left Handed

Now we can start cutting the diamonds from the strips. Start by laying out the strip flat right sides up on your mat. Trim off one of the short edges at a 60° on the strips. 

Right Handed

Left Handed

With the end trimmed, which gives us a 60° angle to start cutting from the strip.  I now need to find what my tool guideline size is for the 2 1/2" strips. To find this guideline number, I need to use the Basic shape Cutting Chart found in the Star 60 instructions.  I located the Diamond Strip size of 2 1/2" and moved over one column to find the Diamond Sub-cut guideline, which is the 4 1/2".

 I then located the guideline on my Star 60 tool and aligned the 4 1/2" guidelines along the raw edges of the strip. From there I made my angle cut from this alignment.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Then continued cutting in the same manner until all my diamond were cut.

After I made my first cut, I verified that the diamond was the exact as the template piece in the Seaside pattern, and found it matched it completely. 

I continued to cutting all my background and featured diamond shapes out.  I love how easy they are to cut out and now I'm ready to start stitching all these pieces together to make this table runner together.

Stay tuned, I will posting the final product next Monday. I hope you will enjoy the Journey to Nebula Quilt Along as much I will.

Tina

Aztec Dance BOM Month 3

Today is release day for Month 3, the halfway mark on making our Aztec Dance Quilt. For month 3, I have added bonus block #1 to this month's mix. Please remember you can join in on the fun, and catch up at any time, by checking out my Aztec Dance BOM page.  

You can purchase Block 3 Here.  Remember, you have two options for buying the pattern. First, My website is set up for both Printed and Downloadable PDF versions. For my International customers, I have an Etsy website.

Month 3 Block

Month 3 is now available for purchase. The tools you will need for this month's block are the Wing Clipper® I and Tucker Trimmer tools. This block makes into 6" (Wall) and 9" (Queen). 

For this month's block, you will be making more Diamond in Square units. Additionally, we will be adding in Picket and Shaded Four Patch units.

Pickets

Let's start with the Picket units first. Gather your Blue squares and Rust rectangles you cut out in the cutting instructions.

Mark a diagonal line from corner to corner on the reverse side of the blue squares. Then position the blue square with a rust rectangle. Making sure the diagonal line starts in the upper left Corner. Stitch on the drawn diagonal line, and trim 1/4" away from the sewn line.  Press toward the triangle.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Position your Wing Clipper® on the unit, aligning one of the long diagonal guidelines on the ruler with the diagonal seam line. Trim the first two sides of oversized unit.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Rotate the unit 180° and reposition your Wing Clipper® to align trimmed edge and the "X" with the sewn seam. Trim again up the side and across the top.

Make a total 16 Rust pickets.

Now we need to repeat these pickets using the blue squares and gold rectangles.  This time we are going to align the diagonal line so that it starts in the upper right corner to make a total of 16 Gold Pickets.

Shaded Four Patch

Now we need to make 16 Shaded Four Patch units. Gather your Accent #2, Tan strips and Blue rectangles.

Take your Narrow Accent #2 and Wide Tan Strips and stitch them together along the long side. Press the seam allowance toward the wide strip. Cut the strip set in half to make 2 strip sets.

Pair the two strip sets right sides together with the narrow strips on opposite sides so each narrow strips lay over a wide strip.  Sub cut the strip sets into 8 sections that measure the width of the narrow strip. keep these sections together.

Stitch each pair along the long side. Snip the seam allowance at the half way mark between the two squares all the way to the seam. Press both seams away from the patch.

Using a ruler with a 45° angle mark. Place the 45° line on the edge of the unit and Draw a 45° sewing line on the wrong sides of the unit.  Making sure the line runs from top to bottom and goes through the corner of the square where the stitching lines meet. Draw a second line on the opposite side of the unit through the other square.

Center the marked unit over the blue rectangle. Stitch on both the marked lines, Cut 1/4" away from the two stitching lines on both sides. Press toward the larger triangle.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Position the sizing diagonal of the Tucker Trimmer over the unit, so that is lines up with the unit size diagonal seam line of the Shaded Four Patch unit and assuring the common diagonal lines up through the corner of the square at the center of the unit. Trim the first two sides.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Rotate the unit 180° and line up the Tucker Trimmer over the unit again, aligning up the diagonals and cut sizes with the previously trimmed edges and trim. Repeat to make a total of 16 Shaded Four Patch units.

Diamond in the Square

For the last couple of month we have been making Diamond in Square units, so you should have a good handle on how to make these units by now. If you need a refresher please read the first blog post on Diamond Half Square units.

Assembly

Now that all the units are made it's time to put Block 3 together, starting with the Picket Units.

Stitch the two pickets together, making sure the inner points are going toward the center. 

Once these units are together we can layout our units according to the block layout. Then stitch them together to make 4 Block 3 units.

Bonus Block #1

We have completed Block #3, so now we are going to make Bonus Block #3, which are the Large Half Square Triangles, that will act as a fill in block for the quilt.

You will need to make 16 an 6 1/2" (Wall) or a 9 1/2" (Queen) unfinished size Half Square Triangles using the blue and rust fabric colors.  If you are making the queen size you will need to use the Tucker Trimmer® III to trim up your units.  If you need the tool, you can find it on my website, Studio 180 Design website, or your local quilt shop. 

Have fun stitch this month two blocks and look forward to seeing you on September 15th.  

Tina