Fancy Flying Geese {Tutorial and Block Progress}

My July Island Batik Ambassador project is moving along nicely! Today I'm going to talk about the "fancy flying geese" used to make the Missouri Stars for this quilt.

But first, here are my stitch and flip square in a square units for the centers of my five Missouri Star blocks:

Most Missouri Star tutorials will have you individually piece the little triangles and the background for the "star point" sections of the blocks. The method that I use combines half square triangles with the fast flying geese method to avoid tiny piecing and bias stretching.

I originally came up with this idea when I wrote the tutorial for a 12" Missouri Star block for my Quilter's Choice QAL in 2014. Replacing squares with pieced HSTs provides you a fun way to make your flying geese units more interesting.

Since these blocks are 9" finished, my squares are scaled down from my original directions.

For four (4) Fancy Flying Geese for a 9" finished (9.5" unfinished) block:
One (1) 5 3/4" background fabric square
Two (2) 3 3/4" focal fabric squares in color A
Two (2) 3 3/4" focal fabric squares in color B

Combine your A and B focal fabric squares to make four (4) A/B half-square triangles. Draw diagonals on the back of your B squares, layer each right sides together with your A squares, stitch 1/4" from each side of the line, cut apart on the diagonal line, and press. Trim these units to 3 1/8".

I'm making two colorways of star blocks so I made two colorways of HSTs for my fancy flying geese:

After trimming, draw diagonal lines on the back of each HST perpendicular to the seam. Layer two HSTs atop your background square with the same color of the HSTs at each corner and at the center.

Sew 1/4" from each side of the drawn diagonal, cut apart on the diagonal line, and press toward your half-HSTs.

Repeat with the remaining two HSTs atop your half-way-completed goose units. Cut apart on the diagonal line, and press toward the half-HSTs for four (4) complete Fancy Flying Geese units.

This method can be adapted for any size flying geese -- just cut the squares for your HSTs 1/2" or 5/8" larger than what would be needed for the fast flying geese method.

Here's my first Missouri Star block:

Here's four out of the five together:

And here's the center of my quilt all together! 

Now I need to work on the pieced borders and think about how to quilt this baby quilt! I'll need to grab some flannel for backing as well! As always a big thank you to Island Batik for allowing me to participate in their Ambassador program and providing me with these fun batiks to create with!

Drift Away {Piecing Complete)

In between working on my Island Batik challenge for July, I've been plugging away at my Drift Away quilt and have been able to finish the top!

Or at least, finish the pieced part of the top. Much like my Double Delight quilt top, I'm not sure if I want to add a border onto this quilt or not. My original plan and my current inclination is to add a 5" border all the way around for a 90" square quilt since I'm thinking about giving this quilt as a wedding gift (that is, once the recipients actually get engaged -- it's only a matter of time!)

This project was supposed to be a leader and ender project, and I was having too much fun working on it to just leave it as a leader and ender project. The other complication (which I didn't necessarily anticipate) was that working on this quilt definitely required it to be laid out and planned out, which isn't very conducive to leader and ender projects most of the time. I also found that the big pieces of this quilt (the biggest size of squares is 8.5") took up a lot of valuable sewing station space!

I think it's a miracle that I was able to obtain such a random and well blended layout of all of my different fabrics! As I noted in some of my previous posts about this quilt, there are some fabrics with great memories attached to them included in this quilt. Even if this is a quilt that doesn't live me forever, it's been a good change to work on a scrappy project with bigger piecing.

I need over a yard of fabric for borders on this quilt so I haven't found anything in my stash. So at this point, I can either call it finished or start looking for a border fabric -- what do you think? Should I keep this 80 inches square or add borders so that it will be closer to 90 inches square?

Happy Wednesday! Sharing at Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday and Oh Scrap! Don't forget to take advantage of our free shipping special in the HBD Etsy Shop!

Christmas in July {Island Batik Ambassador Box Opening}

Saturday certainly felt like Christmas in July -- my second Island Batik Ambassador goodie box arrived!

For those that may not know, as an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided a lovely LOVELY box of fabric and goodies twice a year by Island Batik! We do challenges every month based around a theme and have blog hops featuring the newest fabric lines two times a year. This is my second year and hopefully not the last! Let's check out what was in my box:

First up is a strip set of London Fog with coordinating yardage:

Next is a ten inch stacker of Spirit Rhythm:

And we can't go without basics! This is a big chunk of neutral and some half yard cuts of blenders and basics:

A beautiful rainbow of Paisley Dot fabric:

Some solids to sprinkle in to projects:

Three different battings from Hobbs! I'm very excited to try the wool blend battings.

And of course -- my SURPRISE bundle! I can't show this just yet since it hasn't been released! It will be used in a big project in January!

And finally some swag from Aurifil!

If you're interested in checking out more of my Island Batik Ambassador projects, click on the Island Batik Ambassador tab in my header! I will have another post up later this week about my July project!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be in my sewing nook petting all of this beautiful fabric!

Don't forget to take advantage of our free shipping special in our Etsy shop!

PS. If you missed out on my Island Batik giveaway two weeks ago, don't fret! Plenty of the other ambassadors have giveaways planned this month -- check out PamelaQuilts to enter her giveaway this week!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Pattern Play and Secondary Designs {July IBA Challenge}

This month's Island Batik Ambassador theme is pattern play and secondary designs!

What exactly are secondary designs as they relate to quilts and quilting? I think the best, simplest explanation of a secondary design is that it is the additional designs that arise when pieced blocks are placed next to one another. I think the most common example of a quilt with secondary designs is the traditional Storm at Sea quilt.

Image from Generations Quilt Patterns

While this quilt is, when broken down into its parts, are square in a square units and pieced sashings, putting things together results in our eyes seeing stars as well as the illusion of waves.

Two block quilts also frequently produce secondary designs. If you haven't made one yourself, you've probably seen someone make a Wanta Fanta block from the Bee Hive collection! 

Image from Blossom Heart Quilts

Another one of my favorites is the Carol quilt from Kitchen Table Quilting! In this quilt, the blocks create a lattice effect.

Image from Kitchen Table Quilting

Remember my two Blue in Bloom quilts? These quilts definitely make use of secondary designs!

I created a Pinterest board for secondary designs and two block quilts, too! Check it out for more inspirations. 

For my project for this month, I'm making a two block quilt using snowball blocks and Missouri stars that will be a baby sized version of a very cute mini quilt my sister made a while ago:

Her blocks are 6" finished and her mini is about 24" square. My blocks will be 9" finished and my quilt will be about 36" square, which will be a perfect little baby quilt! For my quilt, I pulled yellow, purple, and pink Island Batik fabrics and added in a white solid.

The yellow dot print in the back will be my main fabric replacing Amanda's jellyfish. My stars will be an assortment of pink, purple, and yellow and I'll use white in the same places as the original. I already have purple binding set aside (my failed binding from my 30 Pearls quilt!) for this project and I'll be getting flannel for the backing since it will be a baby quilt.

The four full snowball blocks are done (I'll need to make eight half-snowballs!).

I've started cutting and sewing on some of the parts and pieces of my Missouri star blocks and have really just made a mess of my cutting board.

Happy Friday! Sharing at Main Crush Monday!

Progress Report {Mid-year Check in with Quilting JetGirl}

Yvonne has set up a link-up encouraging all of us to look back on the goals we set for ourselves in 2018 and see how we've fared halfway through the year.

My three goals for 2018 were:

1. Quilt and finish some of my completed (or nearly completed quilt tops)
2. Host a new QAL and improve engagement
3. Say "no" with more frequency.

Here's how I think I've done with each of them:

1. Quilt and finish some of my completed (or nearly completed quilt tops)
Moderate Success -- doing my monthly "Brutal Honesty" posts with my full WIP list keeps me honest and ensures that I completely forget about a project. I've finished seven different projects that were on my WIP list in January, three of which were actually WIPs at the start of 2017 -- Top Spin, Farmer's Wife, and Summer on the Coast.

2. Host a new QAL and improve engagement
Great Success -- the Blocked Rainbow QAL has come and gone already! We had a lot of new faces that joined us this time around and I set up a Facebook group. Now to just finish my own quilt...

3. Say "no" with more frequency.
Mild Success -- I don't know if I am actually saying no more or not -- but overall, I'm feeling less overwhelmed by my commitments both with sewing and personally. I think most of this is just being more organized and prioritizing anything with a deadline over other sewing -- even if that means not having three blog posts every week. I'm also focusing on sewing for fun and making sure that my commitments are fun too!

Don't forget to stop by to check in with everyone else at Quilting JetGirl!